The Night of the Close Encounter
by The Wild Wild Whovian
Summary: Artemus Gordon gets a big surprise when a tentacled space alien wakes him up with the request that he and his partner James West give the aliens a bit of a hand. It seems that one of the aliens has gone rogue and unleashed an enhanced clone upon the Earth - and the clone in question is someone Our Heroes know all too well. AU. A NaNoWriMo story.
1. Surprise!

**The Night of the Close Encounter**

**Part One**

**Surprise!**

Artemus Gordon awoke to the glorious sensation of his wife cuddled up against his side, her head pillowed on his shoulder. His wife! After all those years of lonely (and, he had to admit, footloose) bachelorhood - all those years since his high school days of loving Lily Fortune from afar - at last he had landed her. His wife, Lily Gordon. He smiled to himself, lying in bed beside her in what was now their stateroom in the varnish car of the Wanderer. For years he and James West, his partner in the Secret Service, had lived on this private train, traveling the country arresting the bad guys and righting the wrongs. And now Lily lived here too.

"Life is good!" he said softly into the early morning darkness.

"Hmm?" Lily stirred. "You say something, Artie?"

"Shh. I'm sorry, Lil. I didn't mean to disturb you. I was just saying that life is good."

She slipped a hand up to caress his stubbly cheek, then pulled his head toward hers for a good morning kiss. "It certainly is," she agreed.

He kissed her in return, enjoying her sweet response to his touch, enjoying the way she said, "Oh, Artemus!" as he nuzzled in below her ear and started nibbling the side of her neck. His hands began to stray; so did hers…

Suddenly, just as he was whispering a sweet nothing into her ear, she cringed and dug her fingers into his shoulders. "Artie!" she squeaked.

All right, that did not sound to him like the throes of passion. Artie opened his eyes and looked into her face, saw how wide and panicky her eyes looked, and realized he could see her. Someone had put the lights on.

"Jim!" he growled as he turned around. "You may be my best friend, but you have _got _to learn to… knock…?"

"That's not Jim," Lily said unnecessarily, her voice still high and tight.

No, it certainly wasn't. Artie raised a hand to shield his eyes from the incredibly bright light pouring forth all around them. As if in response to that gesture, the light lessened and now Artie could better distinguish just what was present with them in the room. The bulbous head, if it could be called a head, was what captured Artie's attention first, a head with no discernible face upon it. Down from the head depended long streaming limbs, perhaps a dozen of those, inevitably calling to mind the word "tentacles." An all-encompassing bubble, clear and glittering with opalescence, surrounded the apparition; the bubble seemed to be filled with some sort of liquid, giving the creature within it a rippling appearance. Also rippling were swirls and blotches in a multitude of colors all over the skin of the creature. Where the light was emanating from, Artie could not tell, but the entire being, whatever it was, was at no point touching the floor; it floated before them, gently bobbing in mid-air.

"Great jumping balls of St Elmo's fire!" Artie exclaimed. "What on earth…?"

_/Earth has nothing to do with it,/_ came a voice that was in Artie's head but not in his ears. _/Mr Gordon, we need your help./_

"My… my… my help?" Artie stammered, stunned. He sat up in the bed, interposing his own body between his wife and the floating tentacled phantasm. "What are you talking about? What are you?"

At that moment the stateroom door slammed open and Jim West leapt into the room, gun in hand, instantly taking aim on the intruder even though it wasn't possible that whatever the intruder was could have yet registered in his consciousness. The next moment the revolver went flying from Jim's hand to glue itself to the ceiling.

_/Your weapon will not be necessary, Mr West. We come in peace./_

Jim glanced at his partner. "Are you hearing words inside your head?"

Artie nodded. "Yes. It says it comes in peace. Lily, you hear it too?"

Wordlessly, clutching the bed sheets to her bosom, his wife nodded as well.

Jim turned to the intruder. "What are you doing here? What do you mean by needing our help? What are you?"

_/We are the Ghex./_

"Ghex," Jim repeated after it, shaking his head. "That has no meaning to us. What are the Ghex?"

_/In the future, your people might speak of us as space aliens. Little green men./_

"I doubt that," said Artie, "considering you are neither little nor green nor anything remotely anthropoid. But get to your point, Mr Ghex. Why are you here?"

_/We need your help,/_ the creature repeated. _/We are an old race, from a planet so far from yours that your people have no name yet for our star. We travel about the stars collecting…/_

The creature's words faltered at that point, a confusing pattern of shifting colors and shapes cascading over its epidermis. After a few seconds, Jim prompted, "Collecting what?"

_/Ah… specimens. Representative creatures of the planets we visit. We choose interesting living things, replicate them, and take the original home with us, leaving the replicant, or clone, behind to live out its natural life./_

"Do you get permission?" asked Jim.

This question seemed to puzzle the Ghex. Purple whorls popping out all over it, the creature asked, /_Permission? What do you mean?/_

"He means do you ask the living things you are collecting if they _want _to be duplicated and hauled off to be an exhibit in your zoo?" said Artie, getting angry.

_/You do not understand. There is no zoo. We are scientists, studying the diversity of life across the galaxy./_

"Oh, that makes it even better then. You don't put the specimens on display; you use them to run experiments on. Vivisection, I suppose?" Artie's voice was becoming dangerously sarcastic.

Bewilderment filled the Ghex's next statement as large blotches of maroon spread over its skin. _/Why are you angry? Do not your own scientists use specimens they collect for experimental purposes?/_

"Specimens, yes: plants, animals. But not people!"

Now Jim looked at him. "People? What makes you say that?"

"Well, didn't you see…?" Artie paused, then started over. "Back when Mr Ghex here mentioned collecting specimens and made such a long pause between the words, you didn't see anything, Jim?"

"See anything? No. What do you mean?"

Artie looked at Lily. "And you didn't see anything either?"

She shook her head.

"Well, I saw something," said Artie. "Here inside my head I saw a flash of a large, open aired complex under a yellow sky. All sorts of cages - well, not exactly cages, more sophisticated than that. But there were all kinds of creatures held in these enclosures… pens… ah, kennels. Most of the creatures were animals of some description or another, but there was one…" Artie looked up at the Ghex, anger boiling up in his brown eyes as he continued, "One of the captives under that mustard-colored sky was human. And not merely a human, but a child!"

Lily threw a hand over her mouth, her face blanching. And Jim glared at the Ghex as well. "Show me. What Artie saw, show me as well!"

_/It was not what you think,/_ said the Ghex.

"Show me what Artie saw!" Jim demanded.

The Ghex seemed to sigh, and now a vision flooded Jim's mind, and Artie's and Lily's as well. Just as Artie had described it, there was a vast area filled with enclosures, each enclosure housing a single creature. Some of the creatures were familiar, but most of them were fantastic, unknown, unreal. And one of the pens, on which now the vision focused itself, zooming in until that one pen filled the mind's eye, held a small and miserable-looking human being. He was sitting on the ground with his arms wrapped around his drawn-up legs, his face hidden as he rested his forehead on his knees.

_/This, in fact,/_ said the Ghex, _/is the reason we have come to you for help. We have recently come to the knowledge that the scientist who collected this specimen altered the replication process. Instead of making a perfect duplicate, Betolo… shall we say, enhanced the clone before leaving it behind./_

"What do you mean by enhanced?" asked Jim.

_/And not only this specimen. Betolo apparently has been experimenting with such enhancements for some time now without the Board being aware of his actions. Many other planets have suffered from the effects of his enhanced creatures, even as your planet has suffered./_

"Our planet?" asked Artie. "What are you talking about? What suffering are you referring to?"

_/The replicant of this specimen was greatly enhanced in mental abilities, though not, as you know, in physical abilities. That replicant has caused your people much grief, and that…/_

"Wait a minute," Jim interrupted. "As _we _know?"

_/Yes. You, of all your fellow Earthlings, have had the most experience with this replicant, and that is why we have come to you to appeal for your help in capturing it./_

"You want us to capture… I thought you guys were the experts in collecting your so-called specimens," said Artie.

_/We are experts, yes. But Betolo apparently gives his replicants warnings about the Ghex before turning them loose again on their home planets. We cannot get near this one, for it recognizes us and escapes, time and again./_

Jim and Artie glanced at each other, the words "escapes time and again" sounding very familiar to them. "Who is he?" said Jim, and Artie added, "He's not really a child, is he?"

The vision zoomed in still closer just as the miserable captive raised his head. And so Jim, Artie, and Lily found themselves looking right into the stunning blue eyes of Miguelito Quixote Loveless.


	2. Decision

**Decision**

"You kidnapped Dr Loveless?" said Artie.

_/_Kidnapped _is an emotionally charged word,/ _said the Ghex, turning crimson_. /We prefer to say that we collected the specimen./_

"That so-called specimen happens to be a human being," said Jim.

And Artie repeated, "You kidnapped Dr Loveless!"

_/Technically, no. We collected - say rather, Betolo collected - an immature specimen known as Miguelito Loveless. It was Betolo's replicant which went on to earn the title of Doctor./_

"Immature. So you kidnapped him when he was a child," stated Jim.

_/We collect the vast majority of our specimens when they are young. It is much easier to replicate them when their brains are fresh and their memories few./_

"And you leave behind a fake child for their parents to raise, hoping they will never notice the difference, eh?" growled Artie. "Now I know where the old legends of the changeling child come from. It wasn't fairies stealing babies; it was you!"

Turning a deep indigo, the Ghex said, _/There is no call to be insulting about this, Mr Gordon. We have come to you for help!/_

"Yeah? Well, I think there is every reason to be insulting! You…"

Jim raised a quelling hand. "Let's hear the Ghex out," he said to Artie, and then to the alien, "What precisely is it you want us to do?"

_/Now that we are aware of Betolo's activities, we have been collecting his replicants, ridding their home worlds of the menaces he burdened them with. We have, for the most part, met with success in this endeavor, but in the case of Dr Loveless, he continues to elude us. What we have found to be impossible for us, we hope you will be able to accomplish. You have, after all, been able to capture Dr Loveless on more than one occasion./_

"Yes. But if you know our history with Loveless, you also know that he has eluded capture by us many times," said Jim.

"Yes, and even when we did catch him, he managed to escape from prison again afterwards, apparently with great ease," put in Artie.

"Not to mention," Jim added, "the fact that more than once he has faked his own death."

Artie rolled his eyes. "Yeah, to the point of fooling me into thinking he was dead, because he wasn't breathing enough to fog a mirror!"

_/Nevertheless, we have every confidence that you gentlemen will be successful./_

"That's more than I have," muttered Artie.

"How do we turn the good doctor over to you once we have him?" Jim asked.

_/Bring him here to your train. We will effect the transfer to our custody here./_

Jim and Artie exchanged glances again, then Jim said, "I don't suppose you have any idea where we might find him, do you?"

_/In fact, no. We last encountered him in San Francisco, but he evaded us as usual, and we have not been able to locate him since./_

"But you expect us to be able to find him."

_/Your reputations precede you, Mr West, Mr Gordon./_

"Even into outer space?"

_/We keep very good records. Our eyes are everywhere./_

"I bet they are," Artie muttered. He glanced at Jim, then said to their visitor, "Ah… If we might have a few moments alone to discuss this? Unobserved, you understand, with no eavesdropping?"

_/But of course, Mr Gordon./_ And the strange apparition winked out as if it had never been.

Jim lit one of the gas lamps, then sat down and leaned toward Artie. "What do you think?"

"I think I would be a lot less perturbed by this whole occurrence if Mr Ghex there hadn't popped up in our bedroom in the middle of the night, in the middle of… um…" He glanced at Lily and fell silent.

Jim's eyebrow arched and a small smile touched his face briefly. Putting that aside, he said, "If this is the reason Dr Loveless has been such a thorn in our sides all these years, that he's some enhanced alien construct…"

"Right. Then it does make sense to return him into the custody of those from whence he came."

"If we can find him."

"Yes, and capture him."

"The Ghex said that he's been warned to watch out for them."

"Well, he'll be on his guard against us as well," Artie pointed out.

"True. But there are times when I think he almost looks forward to us showing up again, as if his life becomes boring without us."

That made Artie chuckle. "What an imagination you have, Jim!" He paused, then added, "Speaking of boring though, can you imagine having to live like what Mr Ghex showed us of the real Miguelito, all penned up like that?"

"Is that much different from being in prison though?"

Both men turned to look at Lily, who had posed the last question.

"A lot different, I should think," said Artie.

"For one thing, our prisons have walls and roofs, so that the prisoners aren't left out in the elements."

"Not to mention… ah… something I won't mention…" Artie trailed off lamely.

Lily gave him a sharp look. "What were you going to say?"

"Oh… ah… I'll explain later. At any rate, Jim," he said, hastily turning from his wife to his partner, "I think if we do agree to track down Dr Loveless and hand him over to the Ghex, we should insist on part of the bargain being that they give us the real Loveless in exchange."

"Agreed," said Jim.

"All right then. Ah… How do we let Mr Ghex know we're ready to talk with him again?"

The extreme light returned abruptly. _/You have come to your decision?/_

Jim and Artie exchanged a frown, wondering how much of their private conversation had in fact been private. "Yes, we have. We will go after Dr Loveless for you on one condition."

_/Excellent! And that condition is?/_

"That when we turn the Loveless replicant over to you, you must turn the real Loveless over to us."

_/We were expecting that stipulation, and acquiesce./ _The glowing squid creature floated before them, happy shapes in happy colors rippling over its surface. _/We will return in eight hours. This will be sufficient time?/_

"Eight… eight hours!" exclaimed Artie.

"I suspect the reputations that have preceded us may be quite a bit too optimistic," said Jim.

_/If at our return in eight hours you do not have Dr Loveless in custody to transfer to us, we shall grant you more time,/_ said the Ghex. _/And now, good day, gentlemen, Mrs Gordon./_

The light vanished once more and the three of them were alone.

Artie let out a huge sigh. "Well, Jim, I hope we haven't just made a deal with a devil!"

"Me too," said Jim. He glanced up, then held out his hand. A moment later with a soft _thwack_, his revolver landed in his palm. He tucked it into the pocket of his dressing gown, then said, "I'll go get ready. Good morning, Lily." And Jim left their stateroom.

Artie got up and starting dressing as well, choosing brown pants and a yellow shirt, as well as his favorite tan fringed jacket with its abundance of hidden pockets for the many small surprises he liked to carry on him during a case. As he was sitting on the bedroom chair pulling on his boots, he looked over at his wife and noted how very anxious her face was.

"Now, don't worry, Lil. We've gone up against Loveless many a time, and Jim and I have survived every time so far."

"I know," she responded. "But it only takes once…"

Artie moved from the chair to the edge of the bed and wrapped her up in his arms. "Shh… That once hasn't happened yet, and it isn't going to. We'll be fine; you'll see."

"I hope so," she said, and oh but her voice was trembling!

He kissed her, then kissed her a bit more tenderly. She melted at his touch, and… and… well… Maybe he didn't need his boots on yet after all. Or some other items of clothing either, come to think of it…

Later, when he was once again putting on his boots, Artie said, "I love you, Lil."

"I love you too, you darling," she responded, and for the first time since the floating space squid showed up, she smiled a genuine smile.

"You were mighty quiet around our visitor, sweetheart," he said gently.

She gave a ragged laugh. "Yes, well, I never expected to wake up to find a, a _guest _like that had invaded our stateroom! Are you and Jim really going to help that thing?"

"Well, that Ghex fellow does make a compelling case. If we can catch Loveless - Dr Loveless, that is, the replicant one - and return him to the custody of the Ghex, that should be the end of our troubles with him."

"And the end of that horrible life for the real Miguelito, since the Ghex promised to return him to earth where he can have a more or less normal life."

I hope, Artie added silently, and he wasn't entirely sure whether he was hoping for Loveless the more or less normal life, or hoping for the promise to be kept.

Lily touched her husband's cheek and kissed him. "Be careful, Artie." She laughed uncomfortably. "And to think I considered your life to be dangerous when all I had to worry about was a walking bomb with your face on it!"

"We'll be careful, Lily. Don't you worry. Now, you stay here on the Wanderer. We'll talk to Orrin and he'll be here if you need anything. All right?"

She nodded. "I love you, Artemus."

He smiled that endearingly lop-sided smile of his. "I love you too, Lily. We'll be back as soon as we can, preferably long before the eight hours are up." He dropped a kiss on the top of her head, and she caught his hand and held it for a lingering moment, looking into his eyes. He stayed that way, unwilling to let go of either her hand or the moment, until there came a knock on the door and the sound of Jim's voice saying, "Let's go."


	3. Cabinet

**Cabinet**

After his brief chat with their engineer, Orrin Cobb, Artie met Jim in the baggage car. They stocked up with some items from Artie's lab, then crossed to a tall cabinet in the corner. Jim unlocked the door and they both went in, closing the door behind them.

Inside - inside was far bigger than it was really possible for it to be. The room was much larger than the baggage car the cabinet resided within, with a high ceiling and far-flung walls. In the middle of the room was a six-sided console with a clear column rising from its center all the way up to the ceiling. There was a storage closet off to one side; Jim headed to it, rummaging around for more items to hide in his clothing. Meanwhile, Artie stepped up to the console and began twisting dials, flipping switches, and clacking the keys on the large typewriter anchored there beneath a blinking viewscreen.

"What do you think, Artie?"

"Me? I think we haven't been told the whole thing yet. I also think we shouldn't trust Mr Ghex any farther than we can throw him."

Jim chuckled. "Really? You'd trust him that much?"

"Ah, I see I'm being too credulous. What do you think, Jim?"

Jim, sober-faced, joined his partner at the console. "I think you're right that there's more to this than our visitor told us. Did you get any more flashes that Lily and I didn't?"

"I don't know. I don't think I did. Of course, it's easy to assume that everything I saw and heard, the two of you saw and heard as well."

"Why did you get that image when we didn't?"

Artie shrugged. "I suppose it's because I'm a Time Lord and therefore mildly telepathic already. Mr Ghex may not have been aware of that, considering how much humans resemble Gallifreyans, so in making a strong effort to communicate with us all, he opened up a little too much and my mind snagged that image."

"And what was the thing you started to mention to Lily, then changed your mind about saying it?"

Artie was silent for a bit. "Well… maybe this was a case of me picking up something the two of you didn't. Or maybe you did catch that hint of it, I don't know. It's just that, as soon as I brought it up I realized that either way, I didn't want Lily dwelling on it. But…"

"But?"

"But I, ah… I got the strong impression that the so-called scientific inquiry the Ghex do on their specimens amounts to outright torture."

"Which may well mean that we aren't doing the little doctor any favors by returning him to his makers."

"No. The only thing that lets me stomach this is the fact that he isn't really human, and that poor fellow sitting under the yellow sky _is_."

"Do you think the Ghex will keep their promise to exchange the two Lovelesses?"

"I hope so. And if not…"

Jim grinned. "Exactly. We have a TARDIS, so we can just go get him."

"Yep. I just hope the Ghex aren't aware of our little time machine here." Artie patted the console fondly, then went back to typing and adjusting controls. Suddenly he grinned and pushed the monitor to the side so that Jim could have a look. "Ah, here we go!" he said.

"What do we have?" asked Jim, scanning the rapidly changing charts on the viewscreen.

"All right, you see that?" Artie pointed at the screen, then pressed a couple of buttons to freeze a chart and expand it. "I've asked the TARDIS to look for energy signals that are wrong. You know, as in either alien or anachronistic. And that right there is a whopper of a wrong 'un."

"And not far from San Francisco."

"Nope, not far from San Francisco," Artie nodded. "I bet we've found our man."

"Well, let's go then."

"Right." Artie made a little more fine tuning, then threw a lever. A peculiar wheezing, groaning sound filled their ears as the time rotor in the central column began to rise and fall.

In the baggage car, the tall cabinet in the corner gently faded in and out of existence before finally disappearing entirely.

…

Dr Loveless smiled to himself as he switched off the electricity. Ah, this project was coming along splendidly! "Voltaire," he said as he turned toward his assistant to do some well deserved bragging, "I've almost finished the damper dome and… Why, Voltaire! What are you doing on the floor?"

"But, Dr Loveless, my hands get so tired…"

"That doesn't matter!" the little doctor interrupted. "Now I want a thorough test of the durability of my superior adhesive, and how can I gauge how well it holds if you keep letting go? Up, up, up you go, there's a good fellow!"

With a sigh, the gigantic Voltaire climbed back up the ladder, took hold of the sturdy metal hat that had been mounted to the ceiling by the doctor's test glue, and stepped off the ladder so that his entire frame, more than seven feet in height, was dangling from the hat. He hung there swaying, unhappy, knowing that within a few minutes his hands and arms would be aching again from trying to keep his grip on that infernal hat.

Dr Loveless smiled in satisfaction. "Very good, Voltaire, very good! Now you just keep testing the strength of my adhesive. Don't let go! Now…" He laid a long-fingered hand on a curious box bristling with wires. "It won't be long now. I've nearly completed the damper dome. Just a few more refinements, a few more tests, and it will be fully functional. And do you know what that will mean, Voltaire?"

"N-n-no, Dr Loveless!" The giant could feel his hands slipping already as his palms began to flood with sweat.

"It will mean, my dear old friend, that when I turn it on, it will so scramble and disrupt the energy signals of any experiments I am working on, that the Ghex will no longer be able to find me, much less get a lock on my location." His blue eyes glittered as a glorious grin spread over his face. "The end of Ghex interference in my life, once and for all, Voltaire! Our lives, that is." He gave a happy sigh. "Oh, to be able to live untrammeled, no longer looking over my shoulder constantly!"

"But, Dr Loveless, you'll still be looking over your shoulder for Mr West and Mr Gordon."

"Yes, yes, yes, but that is _different_. They are mere humans. What can they do to us, lock us up again in one of their puny prisons? Bah! It's child's play to escape from those!" He chuckled merrily. "You know, Voltaire, I only stay in their prisons for as long as I want to. I don't think they realize that. And once I am bored with the scenery, poof!" He flung up a hand. "Out we go again, off to wherever we please, hmm?"

"And then Mr West and Mr Gordon show up again." The giant's fingers were aching now; he couldn't hold on much longer.

"Well, of course they do! That's all part of the game! Life would be boring if we didn't have games to play, wouldn't it? I say, wouldn't it?"

"Ah… yes, Dr Loveless. Boring." Voltaire swung out a foot to find the ladder.

"Now, let me see…" Loveless muttered to himself, having already lost interest in the conversation. "Where did I leave that maguffin?" He strolled over to a cabinet and probed within, quickly examining the contents. "No, not here… Hmm… Ah!" He clicked his fingers and whipped about. "Voltaire, I need you to get me… Why, Voltaire! Whatever are you doing on the floor again?"

The giant moaned and pushed the overturned ladder off his back. "Sorry, Dr Loveless," he said. Wearily he clambered to his feet.

"Well, never mind that," said the little doctor. "I need the maguffin. I must have left it out there in the hall in one of those tall storage cabinets. Do go fetch it for me."

"Yes, Dr Loveless," said his colossal minion, and he headed for the door.


	4. Giant

**Giant**

Down at the end of a long line of tall storage cabinets, with a noise of wheezing and groaning, a cabinet unlike the others faded into view, landing with a loud _SHTUNK_. A moment later the new cabinet's appearance and dimensions had aligned with those of the rest, making it all but indistinguishable from the others.

Inside the newly arrived cabinet, Jim frowned. "Artie, does the TARDIS really have to make so much noise whenever it travels anywhere? Can't we show up quietly?"

"Well, Jim, you know it _is _somewhat traditional for a TARDIS to wheeze and groan and land with a _SHTUNK_."

"Just because something is traditional, that doesn't make it wise. It's traditional to shoot into the air to celebrate New Year's Eve, but not the smartest thing to do since all those bullets have to come down somewhere."

Artie sighed. "Yeah, I suppose you're right. It's just… I _like _the sounds the TARDIS makes."

"I don't usually mind them myself, but all we need right now is to tip off Dr Loveless that we're here."

"Hmm. Well, yes, that's true." Artie was flipping switches and dialing dials again, and now he adjusted the monitor screen. "Let's have a look at what's out there. We seem to have an empty hall, and… Oh, wait…"

Jim came and had a look at the screen as well. "Ah. We've found Voltaire."

"So Loveless can't be far away. Uh-oh."

On the screen, they could see Voltaire rattling the door of one of the cabinets in the hall. And across the TARDIS' console room, they could see and hear their own front door rattling.

"What now?" said Artie.

Jim held up a hand. After all, their door was locked.

"It's locked!" they heard Voltaire's voice say from the monitor. "It's not supposed to be locked. Well, I'll just unlock it!" And the giant stepped back, lifted a foot, and gave the door a good hard kick.

The TARDIS door shook mightily, but held.

"You're supposed to open!" Voltaire growled and gave the door another kick, only to find it still would not budge. With a snarl, the giant set himself to kick the door again.

"He's just going keep that up, isn't he?" said Artie.

"Well," said Jim, "time to go say 'Hello' to Voltaire." He walked over to the door, set a hand on the latch, moved aside to be closer to the hinges, then glanced back at Artie.

For his part, Artie was watching the monitor, getting a feel for Voltaire's rhythm. The TARDIS shook again as Voltaire jarred it with another kick, and then another. Artie lifted a hand, keeping his eyes glued to the monitor, then dropped the hand. "Now, Jim!"

Jim West opened the door.

Voltaire's foot just barely made contact this time when the door shot open. Thrown off balance, the giant staggered forward through the doorway into a large and brightly lit area. As the door slammed shut behind him, he had a fleeting notion that someone he recognized was several yards away directly in front of him, standing at a weirdly shaped roundish table-like thing. And then there came a chop at the side of Voltaire's neck, sending him reeling.

He managed to keep his feet under him, then whirled. Ah, definitely this was someone he recognized! "West!" the giant growled and charged at his much smaller opponent.

Jim rushed in, chopped again at Voltaire's neck, then dodged back to get out of the range of the bigger man's long arms.

But not quite far enough out of range. With a grin, Voltaire caught West and engaged in his favorite maneuver of wrapping his huge hands around West's head and squeezing with all his might. Jim writhed in that viselike grip, his hands wrenching at Voltaire's, trying to break free.

Suddenly instead of yanking outwards, Jim shoved the huge hands straight up and dropped down out of the giant's grasp. Once again he chopped at the side of the big man's neck, then ducked under the giant's arms as Voltaire attempted to engulf Jim in a massive bear hug.

For several minutes the battle raged on. At the console, Artie was torn between rushing to Jim's aid and trusting that his partner's fighting skills were up to the challenge. Of course Jim could handle Voltaire, Artie reminded himself. The two had fought many times before; Jim was well able deal with the giant. Besides, Artie couldn't think of any way to take out the big man for Jim. Temporal grace, a concept he and Jim had found out about the hard way, ruled out being able to fire a projectile weapon within the TARDIS, and the knock-out smoke bombs Artie had on him would affect them all, not just Voltaire.

Artie was just trying to come up with some other way he might help Jim when the battle was brought to him. With a crash, Jim and Voltaire slammed into the console, shattering the central column and sending bits of glass, console, and time rotor flying in all directions.

"My TARDIS!" Artie yelped just before the flying bodies smacked into him as well. All three men wound up sprawled on the floor amidst the wreckage as the lights of the room flickered and dimmed.

There was silence.

Slowly Artie sat up, slung his head to clear it, then glanced over to see Jim doing the same. "You ok, buddy?" Artie asked.

Jim nodded, winded. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine." He came to his feet, then gave Artie a hand up. "What about Voltaire though?"

The giant was groaning, trying to get back up. There was a scarlet gash across his forehead. "I… I get you…" he panted. "I get you… West…" His hand came up and made a snatch at thin air, and then the big man's eyes rolled up into his head and he collapsed again, flat on his back.

"Whew," said Artie. "I think he's out." He pulled out his trusty sonic screwdriver and ran a scan on the big minion. "Yeah, he's out. Slightly concussed too." Artie ran a scan on his partner, then smiled and said, "You're in much better shape than he is. I take it when the pair of you hit the console, Voltaire was leading the way."

"Sorry about the mess, Artie."

"Yeah, well," said Artie, rubbing at the back of his neck, "as my Great Aunt Maude would say, 'What's done is done and can't be undone.' " He surveyed the damage, then said, "All right, first things first: let's get Voltaire into rolling cell."

"Right," said Jim. "And then I'll head outside to look for the little wizard."

Artie nodded. "I would go with you, Jim, but if I don't start getting this console rebuilt right away, we're going to be stuck here for a while. A good _long _while."

As Artie cleaned and bandaged Voltaire's cut, Jim went to the storage cabinet and brought out a couple of items that worked as anti-gravity lifters. The two agents strapped one of them under Voltaire's shoulders, the other under his knees, and soon they had the big man hovering about a meter off the floor. They opened the door to the interior of the TARDIS and floated the giant through the corridors to the room the agents had nicknamed the rolling cell. They then removed the lifters again and locked Voltaire within the cell.

"Well, good luck, Jim. I hope Loveless doesn't give you too much trouble."

"Him? He always gives us too much trouble. He wouldn't be Loveless if he didn't."

"He _isn't _Loveless," Artie reminded his partner, shrugging off his fringed jacket and rolling up his sleeves preparatory to working on the console. "He's a souped-up, alien-enhanced replicant with delusions of grandeur."

"Right. Same ol' Loveless as ever." Jim gave Artie a grin and a light clout on the shoulder, then headed off to invade the little doctor's lair.

Meanwhile, after returning the lifters to their proper spot in the storage cabinet, Artie started off his repair work on the console by rummaging through all the broken bits and setting aside anything he thought might be salvageable. After that he brought out a broom and dustpan and swept up what could not be saved. Once that was done, he went wandering through the TARDIS collecting all the spare parts he could find. This, he knew, was going to be one huge job.


	5. Sock Inspector

**Sock Inspector**

Jim closed the TARDIS door behind him and slipped up the corridor, heading into the direction they had seen Voltaire come from. Not far along the way Jim found a door. He flattened himself against the jamb, then eased the door open about an inch and took a peek through the crack into the room beyond.

This was Dr Loveless' laboratory; there was no doubt about that. Scientific apparatus of all descriptions littered shelves and counters of all heights, many of them with rolling staircases alongside them. Evidence of the taxidermist's art hung on the walls and stood on the shelving, along with mounted skeletons of many different types of creatures - including, inevitably, man. Artistic pursuits were generously represented here as well, from the clay models of a variety of living beings - again, including man - to the framed paintings and unframed sketches everywhere there was enough space to display them, to the obligatory harpsichord in the corner, just waiting for someone to sit down and play it.

The biggest clue as to the ownership of this lab was the little wizard himself. Dr Loveless was standing on one of the staircases with his back to the door, working on something West could not see. "Ah!" came the little man's voice, "you found the maguffin then, Voltaire? It certainly took you long enough. Bring it here at once; I need it! And then you must go back to testing the strength of my marvelous glue." Loveless nodded toward that ludicrous hat stuck to the ceiling.

Jim glanced at the ceiling as well, noting the strange sight of the metal hat up there with the overturned ladder on the floor beneath it. He turned his attention back to Loveless, saw that the little scientist was pivoting to look at the door, and made the instantaneous decision to let the door close back. That lab was full of all manner of curious machines, all of them well known to Loveless and none of them the least bit familiar to Jim. To take on Loveless in his own milieu was a dangerous idea, to say the least. Jim decided to take a better look around the rest of the lair first in the hopes of choosing a more advantageous spot from which to engage the little doctor. Slipping quietly away from the lab, Jim went down the row of cabinets looking inside each one in turn, skipping, of course, the one he knew was the TARDIS.

Behind him he heard the laboratory door open. Instantly Jim hopped inside the cabinet directly in front of him and quickly pulled the door closed.

Dr Loveless stepped out into the hallway and stood for a moment, hands on his hips, trying to fathom where Voltaire could have gone. "It was an easy assignment!" he grumbled to himself. "All he had to do was bring me the maguffin!" He started down the hall and stood in front of the row of cabinets for a moment. "Now, where oh where did I put the maguffin after I used it last? Hmm…" He opened a cabinet at random and looked inside. "No, not in here," he said. "Perhaps this one?" He opened that cabinet, gazed in for a bit, then closed it as well. After a moment's further thought, he said to himself, "Oh! I suppose I shall simply have to start at the end and work my way right down the row, looking in every single cabinet! Why couldn't Voltaire have just found it and brought it to me? That would have saved me so much trouble!" He looked at the cabinets at either end of the row, then chose to start at the left.

He was just laying a hand on the handle, not quite cognizant of the fact that there was one cabinet too many in the row and that the particular one too many was the one directly in front of him, when a voice called to him.

"Oh, Miguelito!" came the dulcet tones of a woman.

"Coming, Antoinette my sweet!" he called back. With a flap of his hands at the cabinets in frustration that he did not yet have the maguffin to take back with him, he went off to see what Antoinette wanted.

…

Jim slipped out of the cabinet again into the empty hallway. Well, he wasn't the least bit surprised to find that Antoinette was here as well. Loveless, Voltaire, and Antoinette: the unholy triumvirate. On the other hand, Jim was slightly surprised to learn that Loveless had yet again equipped himself with a maguffin. What was it with Loveless and maguffins? The current one, however, had been in the same cabinet Jim had wound up in and was now tucked safely away inside his vest.

He looked up and down the corridor, considering for a moment which way to go. He still had in mind not to confront Loveless until he had a better idea of the layout of Loveless' latest lair - underground, no doubt - in the hopes of limiting how much of an upper hand the little doctor would have once they did at last meet. Deciding to move away from the lab for now, Jim went up the hallway and peered around the corner. No one was here, but several yards ahead from him stood a spiral staircase leading to an upper floor. There was also a long stretch of corridor on beyond the stairway.

Jim set out stealthily, keeping both his eyes and ears peeled. He reached the stairs and started to continue past them when a sound farther along the corridor signaled that someone - no, make that, several someones - were coming this way.

Like a lightning bolt, Jim vaulted up the stairs to the next floor above. He crouched there in the darkness of that upper room, waiting and watching while a set of minions came down the hall.

Oh, and then they started climbing the stairs! Jim backed away from the top of the spiral and took a rapid survey of the room. It was too dim in here to see much, but he was almost certain he was in a store room of some kind. At any rate, there seemed to be a door in one of the walls; he could see a faint rectangular outline of light and headed toward it. Ah, and here was the door knob - locked. He reached for the lock pick under his lapel.

"Hey! What are you doing here?"

The first of the men on the stairs had arrived, carrying with him a lantern. He drew a gun and aimed it at Jim. "Who are you?" he demanded. "And what are you doing here?"

Jim smiled disarmingly, raising his hands. "I'm just the inspector," he said.

"Inspector? What kind of inspector?" A second man had entered from the stairs now and joined the first.

"Sock inspector," said Jim, slowly walking toward the men at the stairs.

"Socks?" said the first man. "What is that about? You inspect socks?" And turning to the other man, he asked, "How do you inspect socks?"

"Like this," said Jim. One of his hands took hold of the lantern, while the other doubled into a fist and socked the first guy on the chin.

His legs wobbled and he fell on his keister, his gun flipping from his hand and skidding across the floor to who-knew-where. "Hey!" He scrambled back up, only to find that Jim had quickly blown out the lantern. Except for the circle of light in the floor from which new minions were being gradually disgorged, and the barely-there rectangle that marked the locked door, the room was now in darkness.

Darkness was not silence, of course. There were sounds and plenty of them. There were, for example, the sounds of fists or elbows or knees hitting chins or bellies or sides. The sounds of karate chops to necks and haymakers to noggins. The sounds of bodies hitting the floor and the sound of bodies knocking over stacks of boxes before hitting the floor.

There were also the sounds of minions growling at other minions for running into or tripping over their own, and then the sounds of minions getting clobbered because their complaints drew attention to them so that they got hit by either the stranger or by one of their own believing them to be the stranger. It was chaos in the dark.

In the midst of it all, a barely-seen figure, the only person present who knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that every other person in that room was an enemy, went over to the locked door, picked the lock, then slipped out through the door into the poorly-lit hallway beyond.

"He's getting away!" came a cry from someone smart enough to realize that the brief flash of doorway-shaped light with a man's shape moving through it marked the exit of the one guy they all wanted to beat up. All the minions charged for the door, and there were more incidents of running into and tripping over each other.

Some of them managed to reach the door. It was now locked again.

Jim set out along this new corridor, wondering when Loveless would ever find himself a slightly better class of minion.

* * *

_Author's note: For Jim's previous encounter with Loveless and a maguffin, see The Night of One of Those Days._


	6. Pit

**Pit**

Artie stood and looked over the console, a forefinger flicking at his nose. Well, now that he had all the mess cleared away and everything organized, it didn't look as bad as he had originally thought. Most of the console was still intact, though of course the central column was a total loss, as were the monitor and the typewriter. Pulling out the sonic screwdriver, he started going over each and every switch, dial, and lever one by one, checking to be sure they were still intact, still wired in, still functioning, and putting to rights any that were not.

That took him quite a while, but once it was taken care of, he almost felt like he was nearly done. Well, almost. He knew good and well that, though the time rotor and central column were only two items, they were the main items and would take him the longest.

On the other hand, the monitor and typewriter were only two items as well, and now that the console itself was in good shape, it would be a small matter to replace them with the other viewscreen and typing machine he had filched from the lab. The typewriter had to be wired in, which took him some time, but the monitor was a plug-and-play peripheral. Once the typewriter was installed, he plugged in the monitor, then pressed a switch.

He smiled as the monitor screen blinked to life. Moments later he had typed in the command to give him a view of the corridor outside the TARDIS, and now he took a look. Hmm… no one was out there. Artie had rather hoped Jim would be on his way back by now. Not that they would be able to go anywhere yet, but the longer Jim was out there, the more Artie would worry about him.

Well, the cure for worry was to keep busy, right? And he certainly had plenty yet to keep him busy. He sat down on the floor and began sorting through the parts of the time rotor, fitting them back together like a giant jigsaw puzzle, making mental notes of what was completely ruined and would need to be replaced, his fertile imagination considering and discarding ideas on just what he could jury-rig to create those replacements.

Time passed…

…

Jim continued on down this corridor in the upper story of the lair, listening at doors and checking out rooms as he went, following the passage around one corner and then another. He did not find anyone else up here and the rooms he came across were an eclectic mishmash: another storage room, a Victorian parlor, what seemed to be an auxiliary lab, a game room, a kitchen, a luxurious bedroom…

There came a crash from a long way behind him, back beyond the two corners. A gabble of voices saying things such as, "Where did he go?" and "Come on, let's get him!" wafted toward Jim. It seemed the minions had managed to get the door unlocked.

Jim hurried to the next door, listened at it, then picked the lock and let himself in. This seemed to be another bedroom, but with curiously small furniture. The dresser, the wardrobe, and yes, the bed itself were scaled to be used by someone no more than four feet tall. Even the height of the room was proportional to the furnishings, so that Jim had to hunch down a bit to avoid bumping his head on the ceiling.

"This must be the good doctor's room," Jim murmured to himself. "I wonder how Voltaire comes in here. Or if."

"A very good question!" came a voice suddenly. It was an all too familiar voice and a moment later the floor gave way under Jim's feet. Down, down, down he slid along a long and narrow chute that twisted now this way and now that, throwing him at last into a large deep pit. The walls and floor were smooth and reflective, the open top looming some twenty feet above his head. He spotted the chute that had delivered him into this trap. That was an opening about four feet off the floor, but even as he dove toward it to try to exit the same way he'd come in, the opening slid shut, leaving him boxed in with nowhere to go.

And now the owner of that familiar voice appeared up at the top, leaning over and peering down at him, a familiar face to go with that familiar voice. Dr Loveless grinned with delight as his prisoner in the pit.

And as Jim looked up at his captor, he thought, so much for not letting Loveless get the upper hand.

…

A chime rang out through the console room. Artie started and set down his work to hop to his feet and check the monitor. It still only showed the corridor outside, which was empty. Artie frowned as he tried to puzzle this out. The sound he had heard had been too gentle to be the emergency klaxon, too merry to be the Cloister Bell. So what was the chime about? What was it meant to alert him to?

"Come on, Rosalind my girl, what are you trying to tell me?" Artie said softly, a bit embarrassed even when he was all by himself to admit that he talked to the TARDIS, much less that he consider her both a "her" and "his girl," much _much _less that he had named her Rosalind after the character in _As You Like It_. Oh, if Lily knew, she would not be happy! She was a jealous woman, his Lily. Normally it flattered him that she was so possessive, but not when she was jealous about other women who weren't really women.

The sound of the chime echoed through the console room once more, breaking Artie out of his tangential thoughts. "Chime," he muttered to himself, "chime… chime… Hmm. A little light as well would help…"

Obligingly the lighting in the room increased.

He sighed. "I was being figurative, you know. As in, could you shed some light on what the chime is intended to tell me?"

A spotlight shafted down, illuminating the monitor. Artie closed his eyes. "Yes," he said patiently, "I just looked at that, thank you. There's no one out… Oh!"

For as he opened his eyes again, he saw that the monitor screen had shifted from the exterior view to… what was that…? oh! to a map of the TARDIS interior. Well, not exactly a map, and not exactly to scale nor in the proper complement of dimensions either, but his mind grasped the idea nonetheless. One small portion of the map lit up and blinked at him. He twisted a dial to zoom in on that particular room, tipping his head to one side as he tried to recall just which room in the TARDIS that was. Really, it was something like trying to remember one specific cell within a set of lungs, or…

Cell! "Great Scott, Artemus my boy!" he scolded himself. "Be a little denser next time: _cell!_"

The rolling cell! He reset the monitor to show him the interior of the rolling cell where their giant prisoner was. And, ah yes, Voltaire was beginning to show signs of waking up.

"So that was what the chime was about, to alert me to check on the prisoner, right? Rosalind, you little darlin', you are the smartest TARDIS I know!" Well, also the only TARDIS he knew. Or make that the only one he knew currently; he had met one once before, but how likely was it he would ever run across that one again?

Your mind is wandering, Artemus, he told himself. Stop taking off on rabbit trails.

He flicked a switch and now the sound of a very deep voice saying, "Where am I?" filled the room.

"Locked up in our rolling cell, of course, Voltaire!" Artie spoke to the giant. He saw the big man jolt to his feet, then cringe and grab at his own head. Artie winced in sympathy; he had suffered his share or more of hard clonks to the brainpan over the years. "My apologies, Voltaire. I shouldn't have startled you."

The giant looked around wildly. "Where are you?"

"Oh, I'm over here fixing what you and Jim broke," Artie said airily.

Voltaire, as he looked up at the ceiling in his search for the source of Gordon's voice, gave a nod. "A column made of glass. I remember."

"I bet you do," muttered Artie. He adjusted the monitor so that he could see it from the floor, then seated himself again and went back to puzzling together the bits of time rotor. "How do you feel?" he called out.

"Angry."

Nice. "I was speaking of physically, you know. How is that head of yours? I'm pretty sure you suffered a concussion."

He glanced up from his work to see the image of Voltaire on the screen tilting his head this way and that, stretching the muscles of his neck. "It's not so bad," he replied. "Dr Loveless saw to it that my head is much harder than before, and that I heal much more quickly."

"Before?" asked Artie, concentrating on a particularly delicate section of the time rotor. "Before what?"

"Before I died."

"_What?_"


	7. New Improved

**New Improved**

Dr Loveless folded his hands across his waist and smiled down at the trapped Secret Service man. "Well, well, well!" he said.

"That's a deep subject," West deadpanned back.

Loveless' face split into a wide grin. "Oh, indeed it is, Mr West! And at the moment, so are you!" His eyes twinkled merrily as he added, "So good of you to, ah, drop in! I wasn't expecting you."

"Loveless," said Jim, "if you had a trap door ready in your own bedroom along with some way of hearing my voice and replying to me, as well as this very large box in which to hold me as a prisoner, then you were expecting me."

"Oh, not precisely, my dear Mr West. In one sense, of course, I always expect you, for you and Mr Gordon do have a habit of nosing into my private business. But in another sense, as I had no idea you were anywhere near my latest, ah, headquarters - in that sense, you were not expected."

"Thank you for the lesson in semantics."

This evoked another beatific grin. "Any time, Mr West, any time! And now," the little doctor added, rocking on his heels in delight at his catch at the bottom of the pit, "as _you _are here, it is an absolutely certainty that Mr Gordon cannot be far away. When may we expect him?"

Jim's blue eyes glittered back as he queried, "In which sense are we speaking?"

"Oh, in either sense, of course!" said Loveless, stamping a foot as he instantly lost his great good humor. "Do not be such a nuisance! It is not becoming to you."

"My apologies," said Jim dryly.

Loveless gave a snort. "Oh, indeed, I am confident that you are utterly sincere in your regrets. Now…" He leaned closer, his eyes gleaming. "You will tell me where Mr Gordon is, lest he show up and interrupt my proceedings as is his wont. Where is he? What is he up to?"

"What is Artie up to right now? Oh, probably wishing he didn't have so much time on his hands," said Jim with a smirk.

Dr Loveless' eyebrows knit together as he stared at Mr West in bafflement. "_What?_" he said.

…

Artie sprang to his feet and dashed to the monitor to stare in incredulity at the image of Voltaire on the viewscreen. "_What?_" he said again.

There came a crash, and Artie looked down to see that he had lost his grip on the time rotor, which was now once again in dozens of pieces scattered round about him on the console floor.

Oops. All right, well, he was just going to have to fit the time rotor back together all over again. But for right now, Voltaire's most recent statement had completely captured his attention. "Before you died? What do you mean, before you died? When did you die?" he asked.

"It was after Dr Loveless changed Janus to look like Mr West. When the real West escaped from us, he turned on all of the electricity full blast."

"Yes, I remember that," said Artie. "Enough electricity to kill an elephant - but you lived. I remember that very well. You should have been dead maybe a dozen times over, but you lived!"

"Yes, I lived," said the giant, "for a time. But it weakened me. It affected my heart, Dr Loveless said. When we broke out of one of your pitiful prisons the next time, he had to keep urging me to hurry, saying that if I didn't, he would leave me behind. But I was so weak!. Why, I could barely take on three guards at the same time! And when we at last reached a place of safety, I collapsed. Dr Loveless told me later that he tried everything he could - he assured me that he did all he could, to his very uttermost - but I died."

"You died," Artie repeated after the big man. "Begging your pardon, Voltaire, but I just don't understand that. If you died, how are you talking with me now? How were you able to fight Jim a little earlier? The evidence of that fight is all around me right now. No ghost could have broken my time rotor so thoroughly!"

"Your what?" asked Voltaire, looking befuddled.

"Ah… never mind about that. But how is it that you are alive?"

The giant's shoulders gave an eloquent shrug. "Dr Loveless replicated me."

"He rep… Oh, he did not!"

"Yes! Yes, he did. That is what he told me he did for me. He told me that he rewards loyalty just as he punishes betrayal, and so he made me a new body and brought me back to life. A new me. A better me."

"Better? Oh, yes, you said he made your, uh, head harder."

Voltaire grinned. "That is not the only improvement he made."

"Oh? What else did he…?" Artie suddenly snapped his fingers. "Of course! That explains it!"

"Explains what, Mr Gordon?" asked Voltaire, smiling.

"Every time we had dealt with the two of you before, you were mute. But after the Janus incident when you were electrocuted, the next time the pair of you showed up… Well, I'm sure you remember how I chased what I thought was a suspicious little boy down an alley that time when we knew that someone was attempting to disrupt the governor of California's program to save the state from insolvency. This, of course, was before we knew the someone involved was dear old Dr Loveless once more. So I went chasing down that alley hot on Loveless' heels, and when I started poking around a stack of boxes and barrels, trying to find where he had gone, suddenly you were there, and talking!"

Voltaire chuckled. "Oh yes, Mr Gordon. I was there. You should have seen the look on your face just before my fist flattened you! Yes, Dr Loveless gave me the gift of speech. And I have not stopped talking since." And the big man grinned broadly, showing all his teeth.

…

"I think you should be aware of something, Mr West," said Dr Loveless angrily. "And that is the fact that, very frequently when you think you are being humorous, you patently are not!"

"Thank you," said Jim with a smile.

"Oh!" huffed Loveless and stalked away. Jim heard the click of a switch, and a ceiling began sliding out from opposite walls at the top of the pit, cutting off the light. Jim was being completely boxed in.

With a clang the two sides of the ceiling met, plunging Jim into darkness. Moments later there came the crackle of a match being lit, and then the flame was transferred to the wick of a small candle Jim had had on him for just such an emergency. Using the candle to examine the wall where he remembered the outlet of the chute to be, Jim touched the wall lightly, feeling for a crack, looking at the area obliquely in the hopes of finding that little door…

Yes! Here it was. Jim knelt before the door and dripped a small pool of wax onto the floor. Then he stood the candle upright in the puddle, freeing up both hands to work on the door. He pulled out the broad-bladed knife from the back of his jacket collar and tried to fit the tip into the very fine crack where the door adjoined the wall in the hopes of prizing open the door.

…

"So," said Artie as he sat back down amidst the bits of his time rotor and began all over again to fit it together, "did Dr Loveless make any other improvements to you while he was at it?"

Voltaire's image on the monitor grinned even more broadly. "Of course he did."

"Such as?" Artie had brought out his sonic screwdriver now and was firmly welding together the various parts as he got them into their proper places.

The giant laughed. "And you think I will tell you? It is much better if I surprise you with them!"

Artie paused and looked up at the big man on the screen, then shrugged and muttered, "Fine, be that way," and went back to work.

Moments later a loud _clang _yanked his attention away from the time rotor. Setting it down hastily but carefully this time, Artie jumped up and peered at the monitor.

_Clang! _Again the noise reverberated through the speakers, echoing all around the console room. Voltaire was kicking the door of the rolling cell, trying to break free!


	8. Escape

**Escape**

The tip of the knife wasn't able to gain a purchase in such a thin crack, so Jim gave up on that and put the knife away again. All right, if he couldn't get out that way, he'd just have to try another. Sitting down on the floor, he tugged on the heel of his right boot until it popped off, exposing a wad of bright blue putty inside the hollow of the heel. He dropped the putty out into his palm, then reattached the boot heel with a sharp swat of his other palm. He kneaded the putty, rolled it out into a long thin rope, and used it to outline the crack where he knew the chute door was. He next pulled out a long thin cord that had been threaded into the fabric of his jacket and pressed the end of the cord into the putty. And now that the fuse was in place, he took up the candle again and touched the flame to the end of the cord.

The fuse sizzled into life, the fire burning its way rapidly up the length of cord. Jim sprang away to the farthest corner of the pit, covered his face, and waited for the

_BOOM!_

He looked back to see the little door hanging by a corner just before it fell off completely. He hurried back to the opening in the wall, used the candle to take a good look inside, then snuffed the candle and started climbing the chute.

Behind him, he could hear the sound of the pit's ceiling sliding open once more, followed moments later by Loveless' voice raging out, "Oh! He's escaped! Darn you, Mr West, you, you… you abominable do-gooder! You may have absconded from my pit, but you'll never get out of my clutches!" His voice faded slightly as he cried out for his minions to surround the bedroom posthaste and catch the fugitive when he emerged from the top end of the chute.

But Jim had no intention of climbing all the way back up to the bedroom. Lighting a new match, he examined the slide and its surroundings. Hmm. Just a little higher up he saw a platform. He shinnied up to it and relit the candle to have a look at the platform before deserting the slide. It mostly resembled a crawl space: wide, long, empty, and not very high.

Wondering where this might take him, Jim set off on hands and knees along the platform, looking for another way out.

…

"Oh great!" said Artie. The last thing he needed, the very last thing, was for that angry giant to break free of the rolling cell and go roaming loose throughout his TARDIS! "Oh no, Voltaire, we can't have you doing that! Although… well, I don't know if our favorite giant is strong enough to break down the door. He wasn't able to break in through the front door, was he? On the other hand, we didn't let him try very long. Hmm…" Artie looked over the console, continuing to think out loud. "What might I do that will put a stop to all that kicking and contain him, and preferably without doing him too much damage either…"

Voltaire kicked the door again. So far the door seemed to be holding. Artie was just considering how to introduce a smoke bomb into the room, trying to figure out how to do so without him having to open the door to lob it in, when he saw Voltaire pass a hand over his forehead. The giant planted his foot again to kick at the door, but as he raised his other foot, his balance abandoned him. He staggered to one side, caught himself, then made another try at kicking only to have that go wrong as well. He tottered, growled out a few angry words that made no sense whatsoever, then crashed over sideways on the rolling cell's floor and lay still.

"What caused that?" Artie exclaimed.

A block of text typed itself onto the screen, superimposing itself over the image of the fallen giant. Artie scanned the words. "Ah. The mix of elements in the air within that room, that's what you're showing me, Rosalind?" he said to the TARDIS. Then he shook his head and gave a short laugh. "You lowered the percentage of oxygen on him, didn't you? You're going to make me think I should have named you Robin Goodfellow instead, you scamp!" He patted the console. "Well, that's my girl. Restore the oxygen levels to normal for him, and give me a chime if he wakes again, all right, Rosalind?" And he went back to his task of repairing the time rotor.

…

"We're sorry, Dr Loveless, but we can't find 'im."

"Can't find… Oh, don't give me that! He isn't in the pit, and he didn't emerge into the bedroom, so he must be somewhere between one and the other. That's logic!" The little wizard paced back and forth in his lab alongside the now open pit, resisting the temptation to tear at his hair.

"Somewhere between here and there," said a minion. "But there ain't no somewhere in between 'em. There's just the chute."

"Oh, nonsense," snapped Loveless. "Of course there's somewhere between the two. One doesn't just vanish at the trap door and materialize instantly in the pit. One has to traverse the intervening space."

The minions looked at each other. "The interwhating space?" one of them asked.

Loveless closed his eyes briefly to calm himself. "The intervening space," he repeated. "The space through which the chute carries one. The chute leads from one trap door to the other, and passes through an area…" He broke off, then exclaimed, "Oh, never mind, I'll _show _you. Come with me, all of you! We have a Secret Service agent to recapture!"

…

Jim pressed on through the crawl space looking for an exit, holding the candle between two fingers as he crept along. It occurred to him after he'd traveled for some time that there might not actually be an exit from here. This may have been an access way to reach the chute while it was being built, but what if the access had been walled over afterwards?

A sound from somewhere in front of him was accompanied by a sudden cross current of air, enough to blow out his candle.

Not walled over then. He could hear Loveless whipping his minions to action. "He's got to be in there somewhere! Now go get him!"

Hmm. While it might be interesting to find out if it were possible to have a fight in an area just barely tall enough to crawl through, Jim thought he would probably prefer to have a bit more fighting room than that. And now that the way forward was blocked, what did that mean about the way backward? He reversed directions to find out.

…

"No no no! He has to be in there somewhere! You're just not looking hard enough!" Loveless cried.

"We looked everywhere, Boss! We can't find 'im!"

"Oh, I don't believe for a second that you've looked everywhere!" The little doctor ruminated for a bit, then said, "He must have doubled back. Half of you go up to my bedroom and keep watch for him there. The rest of you, back to the lab!"


	9. Flirtation

**Flirtation**

Artie glanced up at the monitor. Voltaire was still out; that was good. All the usable parts of the time rotor were in place now, so Artie began rummaging through the parts he'd scavenged throughout the TARDIS to see if he could find bits with which to fill in the gaps. "You know what would really help here?" he said to himself, if not to Rosalind. "If I just had a maguffin, that would make this a whole lot easier. But, hey, you can never find a maguffin when you need one, right?"

…

Jim emerged from the ruined door into the pit and listened. All was quiet, at least for now. He reached under his jacket and produced a long thin rope with an arrowhead-shaped steel point. Next he raised his right arm and triggered the sleeve device so that his trusty derringer zipped into his palm. Fitting the arrowhead into the barrel of the derringer, he looked up at the partially open ceiling of the pit, then beyond it, gauging how far up the ceiling was as opposed to how long his rope was. Hmm. Yes, he was fairly certain he had enough length. Standing close to one of the walls of the pit, he took aim at a wooden beam in the ceiling of the lab and fired the derringer.

The arrowhead shot out of the small gun, driving into the beam with a solid _thunk_, embedding itself in the wood. Jim slid the derringer back up his sleeve, then pulled on the rope, testing it. It seemed to be firmly engaged in the beam and able to hold his weight. Swiftly he climbed the rope, using the wall beside him to help him ascend. He reached the top, stepped out onto solid floor, and looked around.

Yes, this was the lab he'd seen earlier; the metal hat stuck to the ceiling over in one corner was a dead giveaway, as was the harpsichord in another corner. He spotted the door he'd peeked in through earlier and headed that way. Loveless' minions should be here soon, along with the little genius himself. Jim glanced around the lab quickly as he hurried toward the door. Too many of the things Loveless had in here made no sense to Jim, but he at least knew what a few of the chemicals in their labeled bottles were. He grabbed one marked "Alcohol" and another marked "Oil of Vitriol" in case he would need improvised weapons. The former he knew to be flammable, and the latter to be nasty in the extreme.

At that point he heard a small sound behind him and turned to find a petite brunette standing in the lab with a derringer in her hand. "Hello, Mr West," she said.

"Hello, Antoinette," he replied.

She smiled. "Put those down and raise your hands."

"Of course." Jim did as he was told, a small smile on his face as well.

Antoinette moved to one side, keeping both her eyes and her aim on Jim, until she could reach a nearby table on which stood a box with a metal grill across its top surface. Clicking a switch on that box, she leaned toward it and said clearly, "Miguelito! I have Mr West with me here in the lab!"

"Excellent, my dear!" came the little doctor's voice. "We'll be right there."

She clicked the switch back to its original position, then leaned against the table. "They'll be here soon," she said.

"And in the meantime, we just… wait?"

Her eyes narrowed. "Of course. What else would we do?"

He took a step toward her, and she raised the gun threateningly. "Don't come any closer!"

"Why not?" His smile was easy and friendly. "I've always thought you liked me, Antoinette."

"Liked you? What's that supposed to mean?"

He eased another step closer. "Well, you've often given me the impression you were flirting with me."

She snorted. "Oh, that! That was only to make Miguelito jealous."

"Jealous?" He slipped a little closer to the girl with the gun. "Why would a lovely lady like you need to make her man jealous?"

A fire kindled in her eyes. "Because I'm not always the only lovely lady Miguelito has around. He has me; why does he keep bringing in others? Don't come any closer!"

"Does he have any other women here now?" Despite her repeated order to the contrary, he continued to sidle nearer and nearer to her.

"No, thank goodness, only the minions."

"How many minions?"

"Fourte… Oh no no! You're not getting any information from me!"

"I wouldn't dream of trying." He was nearly within arm's reach now.

"Stay back!"

"Dr Loveless wouldn't like it if you killed me. He reserves that honor to himself, doesn't he?"

"Yes. But I'll shoot to wound you if I have to, so get back over there where you were!"

Jim started to say something more, but just at that moment, the metal hat that was the test object for the doctor's superior adhesive abruptly lost its grip on the ceiling and fell to the floor with a clang.

Antoinette started and glanced automatically toward the sound. And Jim saw his opening and took it. He sprang at her, seized the gun and the hand holding it, and easily wrested the derringer from her. She struggled, writhing and kicking at him, so that he had to drop the derringer on the table top to catch hold of her other wrist as well.

And now that he had a woman right here, Jim did what he usually did. He pulled her close and kissed her.

She fought against him still for all of about four seconds. Then she relaxed into his embrace, and when he released her hands to slip his arms around her, she leaned into him, into the kiss, kissing him back.

At length he let her go and smiled down on her. "I've always wanted to do that," he said.

She smiled up in return, then slapped him soundly. "And I've always wanted to do _that!_" she replied.

"Oh, very good, Antoinette my dear! The one woman the inestimable James West cannot conquer with a kiss!"

Ah yes, Jim discovered. Loveless and the minions had arrived.

Antoinette dimpled at Jim, retrieved her derringer, then went to stand by her man. Dr Loveless grinned at the Secret Service agent. "Well, well, Mr West," he said.

"It's still a deep subject."

Loveless shook his head. "Your drollery interests me not one whit, my old friend. As you have ruined the usefulness of my pit, I shall just have to resort to Plan A."

"Plan A? Wasn't the pit Plan A?"

"Oh, Mr West, surely you must realize that, for a genius of my intellect, _all _my plans are Plan A!" Without turning his attention from his prisoner, Loveless said to a minion, "Danson, you and Parker take him to the cage." And as the two men came over and grabbed Jim roughly, the diminutive doctor pressed a button, causing a false wall to slide up, revealing a cage built of iron bars beyond it.

Jim resisted as the pair marched him across the room, manhandling him as they went.

"Now now!" called Loveless. "There's no need to damage him in any way. I'm sure Mr West will cooperate."

In fact, Mr West cooperated so little that he yanked both Danson and Parker off balance and rammed them into each other, then punched them while both were discombobulated, laying them out cold on the floor. Now he dove behind a counter as the rest of Loveless' minions started firing at him. Drawing his own gun, West fired back.

Loveless and Antoinette scurried to hide behind another counter. From that position of relative safety, the good doctor cried out, "Stop it! Stop shooting! Cease firing at once!"

It took another few seconds for that order to filter through, but the minions finally held their fire, and so did West.

"Now," said Loveless loudly, "as I was saying, Mr West, you _will _be cooperative!"

"I will? Give me one good reason why," Jim replied.

"Indeed I shall, Mr West, the finest reason of all. If you will look into the cage in which I had ordered my men to confine you, you shall see that…" and he dissolved into chuckles, "…I already have Mr Gordon."

In disbelief, Jim turned to look at the enclosure. Within it, huddled and miserable, sat a big dark-haired man in a mauve cutaway suit, his knees drawn up and his arms clasped around them. And as Jim's eyes widened in shock, the man in the cage lifted his head to reveal the face of Artemus Gordon.


	10. No Tricks!

**No Tricks!**

At the sight of his partner a captive in the cage, Jim surrendered and allowed himself to be locked into the cell as well. A minion presented Jim's gun belt to Loveless, who laughed heartily as he laid it on one of the counters. "Thank you, my good men!" he said gleefully. "That will be all for now." The minions filed out, and Loveless and Antoinette were left in the lab alone with the two prisoners.

"Well, Mr West, it does seem that the safety of Mr Gordon is ever your Achilles' heel, does it not?"

West answered him not a word.

Loveless giggled and tsked at him. "Oh, cat got your tongue? Perhaps this will open your mouth." And to the big man in mauve the little scientist gave the order, "Mr Gordon, stand up!"

Wearily the prisoner stirred, then got shakily to his feet. Horror gripped Jim's heart as he saw the fresh dark stain in the center of the man's abdomen and the red pool on the floor where he had been sitting. Jim leapt forward and caught the man as he swayed and collapsed again.

"Artie!"

Loveless was laughing again. "Apparently one of my men is a very good shot. Or a very bad one, depending upon one's perspective."

"Get us out of here!" Jim demanded. "He needs a doctor right away!"

"And as the only doctor available here is myself…!" Loveless giggled some more, then shifted abruptly to cold fury. "If you want me to aid your great good friend, then you must do something for me!"

"All right," said Jim. "What do you want?"

"I want _my _great good friend! What have you done with Voltaire?"

"Voltaire! He's…" An image of the giant fighting him within the TARDIS flashed across Jim's mind's eye, along with the memory of Artie as he had last seen him before spotting him in this cage: Artie in his shirt sleeves, draping his fringe-shouldered jacket over a nearby chair, then grimacing as he sorted through the débris of the time rotor. Jim gently lowered the injured man to the floor, then came to his feet. "Voltaire isn't far away. I'll take you to him."

"Excellent. But no tricks!"

"No tricks, says the trickster," Jim replied. He kept his hands where Loveless could see them as Antoinette unlocked the cage. But when Jim bent to carry the unconscious man from the cell, Loveless said, "Oh no. After I have Voltaire back, then we'll see about him. Now move!"

Jim moved. He led the malevolent pair out the lab door to the row of storage cabinets and pointed at one at the end of the line. "He's in there."

Loveless shot him a skeptical look. "Really, Mr West, you must not care if Mr Gordon lives or dies! You cannot expect me to believe that Voltaire is inside a cabinet of that size. He'd never fit!" Nevertheless, the doctor tried the door. "It's locked. Why is it locked? I never lock these!"

"I can unlock it," said Jim, reaching inside his jacket.

"Miguelito…"

"Yes, Antoinette?"

"Why are there thirteen cabinets? I thought there were only a dozen here."

"Hmm?" The doctor turned away from West to count the cabinets, then turned back, saying, "What are you pulling here, Mr West?"

"This." West now had an item in either hand, and neither was his lock pick. In one hand was a small glass orb, and in the other, a small gas mask. Before the doctor or his lady could react, Jim pressed the mask to his face and threw the orb.

A beautiful cloud of magenta gas roiled out, enveloping the three of them. Loveless tried to gasp in some clean air before the gas could get to him, but he was too late. He began to choke, then collapsed. A moment later, Antoinette followed him to the floor.

Jim kept the gas mask firmly against his face as he waved at the gas to disperse it. When at last he could breathe the air safely again, he tucked away the gas mask, produced his key to the TARDIS, unlocked the door, then stuck his head inside and said, "Hey, Artie! Come and give me a hand."

A muffled voice from under the console called out, "Sure, Jim. Just give me a second… to… there!" A man was lying on his back on the floor, reaching up into the underside of the console. At first only his legs in brown pants were visible, but as Jim came over to give him a hand up, he saw the yellow shirt the man was wearing, and then his broad, good-natured face as well. Jim took his hand and hauled him upright.

"Thanks, Jim," said Artie, brushing off his clothes.

"My pleasure," Jim replied with an especially wide smile.

"What do you need help with?" Artie asked as they crossed to the TARDIS door.

"This."

Artie looked down at the untidy heap of Loveless and Antoinette, and gave a whistle. "Ah! You caught her as well." As Jim lifted the woman into his arms, Artie took up the little doctor. "Hey," Artie added as they set out to carry the pair deep into the interior of the TARDIS, "What do you think, Jim? Do you suppose the Ghex would want Voltaire and Antoinette as well?"

"I don't know, Artie, but I suppose we could ask them."

Shortly, after ensconcing their two new guests into rooms adjacent to the rolling cell Voltaire was in, the agents headed back to the console room. "How are the repairs going?" Jim asked.

Artie shrugged. "I've got the time rotor rebuilt to a certain extent. I was anchoring the bottom of it into the console and wiring it up when you came in. But it's still going to take a lot of work to get the ol' girl flying again."

Jim pulled something out of his vest and tossed it to his partner. "Do you suppose this little item might help?"

Artie caught it and examined it briefly. His first thought was that this was some variety of sonic screwdriver, but then his face lit up with recognition. "A maguffin! Where did you find this?" Immediately he waved the question away. "Never mind. We're in Loveless' lair. If there's anywhere you'd expect to find a maguffin, it's here." As they hit the door into the console room, he grinned and set to work again, this time with the aid of the device Jim had just given him. "I'll have this baby zipping through the Time Vortex in no time now!"

"Great," said Jim. "I'll be right back."

Locking the TARDIS behind himself, Jim returned to the lab, to the cage in the corner. As he had expected, it was too late now. There was nothing more he could do for the man in the mauve suit. Jim retrieved his gun belt and put it on, then gently took up the poor fellow's earthly remains and returned to the TARDIS, laying him out on the console room floor.

Artie, wiping off his hands on a rag, came over and took a look. "Great Scott!" he exclaimed. "Where did he come from?"

"That's what I wanted to ask you," said Jim. He knelt by the man and laid a hand over the poor fellow's eyes, closing them forever. "I'm assuming Loveless was trying to pull another Janus on us, but this time by making a copy of you."

"Janus?" Artie frowned as he too knelt by the dead man and began to examine him. "I hardly think he would do that again. You know how Loveless is. If one of his plans fails, no matter how good the plan was and no matter whether its failure came about from us just having a little run of plain ol' dumb luck, he always abandons it. I don't recall him ever revisiting an old scheme. He always has to come up with something entirely new - although I will say his schemes often do include explosives."

"All right," said Jim. "Then if this man isn't someone who's been surgically altered to look like you, who or what is he?"

Artie had his sonic screwdriver out now and ran a scan over the man in mauve. "By the way," he asked, "how did you run into him?"

Briefly Jim explained about the cage, the stomach wound, and Loveless' demand to exchange the dying man for Voltaire.

Artie's jaw dropped and he turned to stare at his partner. "But… but when you stuck your head in the door and called to me, you sure sounded like you knew I was in here!"

Jim grinned. "I did."

"Yeah? How?"

"Well, look at him!" said Jim. "The last I'd seen of you in here, you were rolling up your sleeves to repair the console. So why would you have…?"

Artie was nodding. "Yeah, why would I have changed my clothes? Especially, why would I have changed into one of my best suits when I was going to be crawling around the floor and getting grease on my hands? Good thinking, Jim!"

Jim smiled and shrugged modestly.

Artie read the results of the scan off the sonic device, whistled, then turned it so that Jim could see. "What do you know about that?"

Jim studied the readout. "What am I looking at?"

"There, the genetic makeup."

Jim paused. "It's human," he said.

"Yeah, it sure is human! And very familiar too!"

Jim looked at him. "As in?"

"Well, it's mine!"

"Yours? But, Artie," said Jim, "you aren't human."

"Yeah, not anymore, not since I opened that watch and was reversed back into the Gallifreyan I was born as. But do you see what Loveless has done? At some point in the past, who knows when, Loveless managed to collect a genetic sample from me - perhaps some hair, perhaps some blood - and he's used it to make a replicant of me. A clone!"

Jim sat back on his heels. "The Ghex told us they were capable of making replicants, but Loveless as well?"

"Oh yes, Loveless as well. Let me tell you about Voltaire." And he did.

"Hmm," said Jim when Artie was done. "That is one dangerous little man. I sure hope the Ghex have somewhere they can keep him that he can never escape from."

"Yeah, me too." Artie came to his feet and stared down at the man in the mauve suit a little longer, then shivered. "Ugh, but it gives me the willies to look at him! My face on a dead man!"

Jim stood as well and clapped his partner on the shoulder. "You go on back and work on the console. I'll, uh, I'll do something about him."

"Ok, Jim. But, ah, what are you going to do?"

Jim gave it a bit of thought, then asked, "Well, as I can't exactly bury him, would it bother you tremendously if I just open the door and roll him outside to leave him in the hall?"

"For the minions to find?" Artie consider that for a few seconds, then said slowly, "Well, all right. I don't know what else to do with him. I certainly don't want to take him back to the Wanderer with us and risk Lily seeing him!"

"Me neither," said Jim. And while Artie finished up with the repair job, Jim got rid of the body.

"All right, that's done," said Jim. "How's the TARDIS look?"

"Right as rain, the best I can tell. I'm having Ro… ah, the TARDIS run a diagnostic right now. We should have the results short… Oh, here we go." Artie looked over the information scrolling rapidly across the monitor screen. "Ok, unless there's something so wrong with the TARDIS that she can't even find it herself, it looks like we're good to go."

"Fine," said Jim.

"Now… Let's see… I take it we should aim to show up right at the end of the eight hours the Ghex gave us. Does that sound right?" And at Jim's nod of approval, Artie set the dials and switches and so forth, then pulled the lever. He grinned as the time rotor began rising and falling as usual, even though it didn't yet have a new glass column within which to do so. "Here we go!"

**End of Part One**


	11. Duplicity

**Part Two**

**Duplicity**

They arrived back at the Wanderer eight hours after they had left it, just as they had meant to. Using the monitor, they checked on all their prisoners - still unconscious - then Jim plucked the diminutive form of Dr Loveless out of the TARDIS and carried him into the parlor of the varnish car.

"Well," said Artie. "Now what? How do we contact the Ghex to let them know we have…"

"I think they already know, Artie," Jim interrupted. For a bright light flashed upon them as the floating space squid in its bubble swam into focus before their eyes, its skin strobing happily.

_/Gentlemen! We congratulate you upon the completion of a job well done. Give us the prisoner./_

"You have to keep your side of the bargain," Jim reminded the alien. "Where is the original Loveless?"

_/As you were not certain you would have completed your task within the eight hours, we have not brought the specimen with us. Give us the prisoner, and we will return with the specimen shortly./_

"Give you the… Ah, no offense," said Artie, "but how? I'm assuming that bubble of yours is some sort of protective suit. So how do we give you Loveless? If you open your bubble, won't that compromise your protective field?"

In response, the tentacles began to wave about. Gradually a bump appeared on the side of the space squid's bubble, growing larger and larger until it budded off like a daughter cell budding off an individual bit of yeast. The new and empty bubble, empty even of the liquid the original bubble contained, floated over to Dr Loveless and engulfed him, then took him up and returned to its parent, merging with it again, transferring the little doctor into the custody of the Ghex.

_/And now, gentlemen, good day. I shall return shortly with the other Loveless./_ The Ghex rapidly lost focus and faded from view, even as Dr Loveless regained consciousness, realized he was in an air bubble within the Ghex' liquid enclosure, and began to scream, "No! No! You can't! You mustn't! Help me! Help…!"

Both vanished, and with them the light. Jim and Artie each gave a long sigh.

"Well, I wonder how soon shortly will be," said Jim.

"There's a question," Artie replied. "Oh, and you know what we forgot?"

"Oh, right. We were going to ask if they wanted Voltaire and Antoinette as well."

"Oh well, I suppose we can just make the offer once Mr Ghex brings us the original. Considering that Voltaire is yet another replicant, the Ghex will likely be very interested in him."

The two men sat down and waited a few minutes.

"Artie?"

"Yeah, Jim?"

Jim frowned and shook his head. "It's… I don't know. It's just that… I've never seen Dr Loveless look so frightened before as when the Ghex took him away just now."

"Well, hey, Jim, if I woke up and found that I was stuck inside a bubble with a squid like that, I betcha I'd start screaming my head off too." He slapped his palms on his knees and got up. "Look. While we wait on Mr Ghex to keep his side of the bargain, I'm going to go let Lily know we're back," and he headed for the corridor.

"Good idea. I'll tell Orrin," said Jim, and he crossed to the fireplace to use the speaking tube.

Artie gave a wave and went on to his stateroom. "Lily?" he called gently as he opened the door. "Lily, we're back."

Curiously enough, she was lying in bed sound asleep. Asleep in the middle of the day? Ah, but she did have good reason she might do such a thing, he thought. Smiling, he came over and perched on the edge of the bed, then leaned down to give her a kiss.

She stirred. "Artemus?"

"We're back, sweetheart. How are you feeling?"

"Fine." She sat up and slipped her arms around him. "That didn't take long," she said.

"Not so very long, no. We were gone eight hours, just as we thought we'd be." He kissed her again, then leaned his forehead against hers and caressed her, his hands roaming over her back and arms and along her waist, lingering there as he checked on… on… Hmm… He frowned. Wait a minute!

Jim was just replacing the speaking tube and was wondering what was keeping the Ghex when Artie came storming back into the parlor car, dragging Lily by the wrist, and none to gently at that. "Jim, we've been had!"

"What's wrong, buddy?"

Artie all but flung the woman between himself and his partner. She stumbled and would have fallen if Jim hadn't been quick to catch her. "Artie?" she said plaintively, tears beginning to roll down her cheeks. "Why are you treating me like this?"

"Yes, Artie, what on earth is wrong with you? You could have hurt Lily!"

"What's wrong with me is what's wrong with her!" Artie growled. "She's not Lily!"

"What?" said Jim.

Lily instantly burst into full fledged tears, whining, "How… how could you… how could you say that about me?"

"It's very simple," said Artie. "When I put my hand on your waist, I should have picked up a second consciousness there, but I didn't. The real Lily was pregnant with our first child. You, madam, are a fraud and a replicant!"

"No! No, of course not, Artie! I'm me! How can you say that?"

Jim pulled out the sonic screwdriver Artie had made for him and ran a scan on Lily. "Well, she is certainly not pregnant, but how can you be sure she didn't, ah…"

"Suffer a miscarriage while we were gone? I'd have felt her grief and pain over such a trauma as that as soon as I got into the same room with her. There's nothing like that in her. She's a blank slate. A replicant. I don't know what the Ghex are up to, but they just declared war on my family, and they're about to find out they've bitten off more than they can chew!"

"And if the Ghex showed up here while we were gone and replaced Lily, I think we can safely conclude that they won't be giving us back the original Loveless either."

"Right," said Artie. Between the two of them, they hustled the fake Lily over to the baggage car and into the TARDIS to take the battle straight to the Ghex.


	12. Ally

**Ally**

"All right, how do we find them, Artie?" said Jim. "The Ghex only told us that their star is so far from here, we don't have a name for it."

"And that they travel the galaxy to collect their specimens. Presuming that means they in fact stay within our galaxy, that sets a limit on how far away they are." Artie was bent over the console, flicking switches, pounding at the typewriter, his eyes fixed on the monitor, as the ersatz Lily sat on a chair in the parlor area of the console room, quietly sobbing.

"You know, Artie, it's a mighty big galaxy," Jim said.

"True, true. But we've had two visits from the friendly Ghex - no, make that three!" he added angrily. "They were here while we were gone, swapping out Lily on me! At any rate, because they were here, they may well have left some trace of their presence and their method of transportation. I'm having the TARDIS scan for anything alien right now…" He started at the new information coming up on the screen and gave a low whistle. "Huon particles? That's old."

"The Ghex did say theirs was an old planet."

"So they did, Jim, so they did."

"From the Mona Lisa smile on your face, Artie, I'm assuming Huon particles are something good."

"Well, they're highly traceable." He typed some more and reset some settings. "And so they should lead us right to them."

"Good," said Jim. "And I have a suggestion."

"Sure, Jim." Artie looked up into his best friend's face. "What's that?"

"Well, we know nothing about the Ghex' home base; we've never been there. We only have that brief glimpse we were given. But there is someone we know of who has been there for years, someone who likely knows his way around the labs where they've probably taken Lily, and someone…"

Artie was nodding. "Yeah, someone who surely has little love of the Ghex and would probably be happy to help us out."

"Of course," said Jim, "if the original is anything like replicant, we'll need to appeal to his own interest to gain his cooperation."

"We can do that." Artie smiled. He adjusted the settings a bit more, then threw the lever. And, groaning and wheezing, the TARDIS faded out, once again disappearing from the baggage car.

…

An unfamiliar wheezing and groaning sound filled the air of the small enclosure under the mustard-yellow sky. "What now?" muttered Miguelito Loveless, lifting his eyes warily. Years upon years of torture administered by floating space squids in the name of research had sharpened his wits but dulled his emotions. Still he came to his feet, ready to run even though there was nowhere to run to.

A large box was fading in and out of view in the corner of his enclosure. It finally materialized completely with a loud _SHTUNK_, then shimmered and turned yellow, matching the sky and sand. As Miguelito watched in curiosity, a glowing vertical line appeared along the face of the box, a second and third line at right angles to the top and bottom of the first delineating the door that was opening in the box. From within emerged two bipedal beings. Miguelito gasped in shock. "You're… you're humans!"

"Yeah, well, we're from Earth," said Artie.

"My name is James West and this is my partner, Artemus Gordon," said Jim. "We're here to rescue you."

"Res…!" For a moment hope glowed in the little man's eyes, only to be replaced almost instantly by wariness. "What do you mean by that?"

"Why, we'll take you home!" said Artie.

"Home? What good is that?"

Jim and Artie exchanged a glance. "Don't you want to go home?" said Jim.

Miguelito laughed bitterly. "Of course I do! It's what I've dreamed of ever since the Ghex kidnapped me and deposited me on this rock. But what good is going home now?"

Artie leaned in close to his partner. "Hmm, he's got a point, Jim. After all the damage the fake Loveless has done, what sort of reputation will poor Miguelito here have once he gets back to Earth? Everyone will think he's his evil twin, so to speak."

"I don't think that's what he means, Artie." Coming forward, Jim hunkered down so that he could speak to Miguelito eye to eye. "Why is it no good going home now? What's the problem?"

"Well, the Ghex, of course!"

Now Artie joined them. "You think that once we return you to Earth, they'll show up and take you away again?"

Miguelito scowled. "No, no, not that!" He paused and looked them over, then said, "You're the ones they sent to capture my duplicate, correct?"

"Yes."

"And if you are here to take me home, I presume that means you have apprehended the other me and turned him over to the Ghex?"

"Yes."

He threw up his hands in a gesture of futility. "Well, that's it then. There is no point in going back to Earth."

Again Jim and Artie exchanged a glance. "Why not?" asked Jim.

The little man made a scoffing sound. "Why, don't you get it? The Ghex have him now. Betolo's masterpiece. The finest replicant he ever made, the epitome of his craft!"

"And?"

"And once they study that replicant, they will be able to duplicate Betolo's work, collect whomever they please and replace them - anyone, perhaps even you! - and before you know it, Earth will be no more free than this place." He waved a hand at the other enclosures under the yellow sky. "Earth will be nothing but Ghexia II."

"But the Ghex already do that. They told us they…"

The little man was shaking his head. "Betolo made the _best _replicants, the enhanced ones. The rest of the Ghex have always been jealous of his skill. Their work is mere child's play compared to his. And so they've been roamed through the stars collecting his replicants to study them and learn his craft. Once they can do what he does, there will be no stopping them. And you two just gave them the final piece of their puzzle!"

Jim and Artie drew back and looked at each other. "I knew we shouldn't have trusted that overgrown cuttlefish!"

"We have to stop them."

"Yeah. And fast!"

Both men hurried back to the TARDIS. Then Jim West paused in the doorway and held out a hand. "Coming?"

"But… but I told you! There is no point in returning to Earth!"

"We're not going to Earth. Not yet."

"Sure," added Artie. "We're going to raid the Ghexian labs right under their non-existent noses, liberate the other you, and do whatever else we can do to ensure the Ghex are never a problem to anyone ever again!" He grinned at Miguelito.

"So," Jim repeated, still holding out a hand, "coming?"

Miguelito stood a moment longer, a slow grin spreading over his face. "You're serious?"

Both agents nodded.

In a rolling stride, the little man hurried to the TARDIS, exclaiming, "I wouldn't miss this for worlds!"


	13. Destination

**Destination**

"All right," said Artie, "where to?"

Their new guest wandered about the console room, taking in the fact that it was so much "Bigger on the inside!" he exclaimed.

"Yes. Yes, it is!" said Artie proudly.

"So it transcends dimensions?" asked the little man.

"Right," said Jim.

"Something on the order of, say, stuffing a big box inside a little one, I take it," Miguelito continued.

The agents exchanged glances. "I'm glad the other Loveless didn't have an opportunity to prowl around in the TARDIS," Jim whispered to Artie.

"And now I'm wondering just how much of an intellectual enhancement Betolo needed to make over this one. He's sharp!"

Miguelito came over to the console itself and studied it, chortling now and then over the odds and ends that made up its various controls. "Who built this?" he asked at last.

Wondering where this line of questioning might lead, since Artie had no desire for either of the Lovelesses to twig to the fact that he was himself an alien, he stammered out, "Oh, ah… she kinda, you know, grew that way."

Miguelito gave him a piercing look. "Grew this way? Are you saying that we're standing inside some sort of living being?"

"Mm, yes," Jim replied.

"Well, gentlemen, I must say, I'm impressed! How did you manage to entrap this creature, or else gain its trust, that it is willing to take you traveling through the stars?"

"Ah, well…" said Artie.

"It's a long story," said Jim.

"Yeah, very long," said Artie, muttering to himself sotto voce, "as in, all my life long," before adding at normal volume, "and at any rate, we should get a move on now. And so, Doctor… I mean, _Mister _Loveless, where to?"

"I take it you want me to give you an idea of the best spot inside the Ghex' labs to land this ship of yours?"

"Mm-hmm."

"Well, let me think…"

And as Miguelito mulled that over, Jim suddenly said, "Hey, Artie!"

"Yes, James my boy?"

"It occurs to me. We've only met one of the Ghex so far, but from what we've seen, whenever it came to visit us, it brought its own environment along with it."

"Hmm. That's true. It was in that little bubble enclosure, surrounded by liquid."

"Yes, gentlemen," said Miguelito. "The Ghex are a liquid-breathing race."

"Which means," said Jim, "that once we're inside their labs, we'll be in their environment, right?"

"Oh!" A worried look came over Artie's face. "We're going to need some sort of way to carry our own oxygen with us. I still have that five-minute breathing mask I cooked up a while back. Well, actually, I've expanded the capacity on a few of them so that they now hold fifteen minutes' worth of air, so…"

Miguelito was waving his hands and shaking his head at them. "Gentlemen, gentlemen! There's no need to worry about that!"

"Oh?"

"Why not?"

"Because the Ghex are collectors of many different types of creatures. Yes, some of those creatures are liquid-breathers like the Ghex, but even with those, not all breathe in the same type of liquid."

"Ah!" said Jim. "Like fresh water and salt water fish, you mean."

"Precisely. And of course many of the specimens the Ghex have in their labs breathe various different types of air as well."

"All right," said Artie. "But why does that mean we won't have to worry about taking oxygen with us? Won't the Ghex have their specimens inside bubbles such as we saw them use, while the Ghex float freely wherever they will?"

"No, Mr Gordon. They don't do things that way. So that their specimens have maximum freedom of movement - an oxymoron, wouldn't you say, gentlemen, considering the amount of true freedom the Ghex permit to us? - the Ghex flood the various labs with the proper breathing atmosphere for each set of specimens. And so the level of the lab to which they have taken my double will be an area in which there is plenty of Earth-normal air to breathe, and in which the Ghex will float about in the same enclosures you say you saw them using during their dealings with you."

Jim turned to Artie. "Then Lily should be on the same level as Dr Loveless."

"Excuse me," said Miguelito. "Lily? I don't believe anyone mentioned a Lily before?"

"She's my wife," said Artie. "While they sent us off to round up the other you, the Ghex came back and collected her and left me a substitute!" And he waved a hand at the sniffling woman curled up by herself in the parlor of the console room.

The little man turned to look at Lily's replicant for a long moment. Then his eyes came up and met Artie's. "Ah," he said. "I see. Then this is personal for you."

Artie drew in a deep breath and started fussing over the console again. "Our destination?" he asked.

Miguelito looked over the console again, taking note of the monitor. "Ah! I see you have something of a map of the labs there. How do you do that? Some sort of sensors or probes? But look here," he went on, apparently satisfied with his own answers, "the lower levels are for the liquid-breathing specimens. This is because of simple gravity sorting: the denser the liquid, the lower down it will naturally sink. By doing things this way, they don't have to use pumps to keep the denser liquids higher or the less dense ones lower."

He glanced up and saw the impatient looks on both men's faces. With a laugh, he said, "Oh, but I beg your pardon! I suppose there's no need for me to explain such things to you. If you're bright enough to have this marvelous living ship, surely you're bright enough to realize that the liquid levels of the lab must of necessity be lower down, and that where we want to go will of course be a higher level."

"Yes, Mr Loveless."

"You want me to point you to a specific location within that higher level of the lab."

"Precisely, Mr Loveless."

"I apologize. I'm so used to having no one else to talk to, coupled with all the time in the world to line out my thoughts to myself one by one." Turning to the screen, he tapped a long finger on a particular section and said, "Gentlemen, I would aim for this area here. This is an oxygenated level of the labs, but that specific room is something of a janitorial area. It's not so heavily trafficked, and yet is close to the intake areas your wife and my replicant will most likely still be in during their, ah… initial, um… probes." The look on the little man's face as he said those final two words fairly turned Artie's stomach. What might the Ghex be doing to his Lily right now? And for that matter, what might they be doing to his and Lily's precious unborn baby?

…

_/Disrobe,/_ said a Ghex dispassionately.

Lily looked at the creature floating in front of her in its bubble of water, its skin slowly changing from olive to ivory and back again. Drawing herself up straight and tall, she said indignantly, "I will not!"

_/Do as you are told or you will suffer the consequences,/_ the Ghex replied.

"I do not take my clothes off for anyone but my husband!" Lily insisted.

A moment later the Ghex shimmered in her vision, then took on the form of "Artie!"

Lily's jaw dropped in amazement, but only for a moment. Anger glaring anew in her bright brown eyes, Lily Gordon said, "You might as well stop that right now. You can't fool me. That's not my husband. You're just playing tricks on me. That's an illusion!"

Resuming its own appearance, the Ghex turned and spoke into some machine nearby in the lab, its thoughts invading Lily's head with a long string of technical jargon that she had no hope of penetrating, except that she got the impression that she had passed some sort of intelligence test, and that the Ghex was making notes of the results. The words faded out of Lily's head now as the Ghex turned to her again. _/Disrobe./_

"I've already told you…!" she began when a sudden jolt of electricity hit her. A horrendous sense of dizziness and nausea flooded through her on its heels, leaving her weak and helpless. Gasping for breath, Lily grabbed hold of the table beside her just before her knees buckled and she sagged to the floor.

Again the Ghex spoke to that machine as its pallid test subject lay on the floor, tears streaming down her cheeks as her stomach turned somersaults inside her. Her hand came up on its own to hover protectively over the top of her belly, but with the sure sense that it would not be a good idea for the Ghex to catch her doing that, she quickly moved her hand away again, hoping the horrid space squid didn't yet know that she was expecting, hoping to hide that fact from her tormentor for as long as she could.

Eight hours, she remembered. The Ghex had told Jim and Artie it would return in eight hours. She had no idea how much time had passed since her beloved husband and his partner had set out on their quest to capture Dr Loveless. She only hoped they would return to the Wanderer quickly and discover that she was missing. Except…

Had the Ghex left a replicant in her place? What if Artie and Jim didn't recognize that she was missing after all? How long would it take them to realize she needed to be rescued?

How long could she hold out here in the clutches of these alien scientists?

The floating space squid finished its second report, then turned to the specimen once more. Its skin still doing that slow change from olive to ivory to olive again, it said without emotion, without compassion, _/Disrobe./_

…

The wheezing of the TARDIS faded away at the sound of the final _SHTUNK _of landing. Artie reset the monitor to allow them a view of the scene right outside. "I don't think we've attracted any attention," he said.

"All right, Mr Loveless, which way from here?"

Miguelito pointed at the map on the monitor. "They usually take the new specimens here," he said, "although…"

"Although?"

"Well, it occurs to me that my double is not exactly a new specimen. It's possible that they might treat him as such, but it's also possible that they might take him, ah… here."

Jim and Artie looked at the second location, which was of course nowhere near the first. "What's that?"

"The, um…" The little man looked up at them apologetically. "Well, that's the advanced lab, shall we say."

"Advanced as in?"

"Where they, ah, do the, ah…"

"The ah?"

He closed his eyes, then unbuttoned his shirt, exposing a crisscross of dozens of old scars running all over his upper chest. "That's the vivisection lab," he said.

"Vivi…" Jim and Artie exchanged glances as Artie's face blanched. "Lily. What are they doing to Lily?"


	14. Assistance

**Assistance**

At the sound of the name Lily, the woman in the corner got up and came toward them. "Take me with you," she said.

"Don't be silly. You're a replicant," said Artie.

"So?"

"So you work for them!"

She held her head high. "What do you mean by that?" she said frostily.

"I mean," said Artie, "that you are a bogus version of my beloved wife, made by the Ghex, loyal to the Ghex…"

"Ha!" She turned her back on him and folded her arms. "What makes you think I'd be loyal to them just because they made me and substituted me for the woman you love?"

"Well, you certainly have no reason to be loyal to me! You're not my Lily!"

"But Mr Gordon," said Miguelito, "she has a point. I've seen many replicants here on Ghexia in all my years here. The majority of them hated and despised the Ghex."

That took Artie aback. "Really?"

"Well, they aren't like parents to the replicants, are they?" put in Jim. "Why should their creations be loyal to them?" He chuckled. "Look at the book of Genesis. Even God's creations didn't stay loyal to Him, right?"

Artie's face twitched, trying not to smile. Then he sighed. "Well, I suppose…"

The woman clapped her hands. "Wonderful!" she exclaimed.

"Yeah, yeah, well, you're going with Jim! It's very hard for me to look at you, Li… uh… Not-Lily."

Jim was at one of the storage cabinets, pulling out supplies. "These are the fifteen-minute oxygen masks, right, Artie?" he said.

Joining his partner at the cabinets, Artie said, "Right. Let's bring a few extras as well."

"One each for Lily and the good doctor, of course," said Jim.

"And a couple of extras beyond that for good measure," said Artie. He rummaged deeper into the cabinet, picking up and discarding other nifty items.

"Upon my word! That isn't a maguffin, is it?"

The agents turned to find that Miguelito was peering at the time rotor in fascination. "An actual maguffin?" he asked again.

"Yes," said Artie, crossing to their guest's side. "Why?"

"I've always wanted to see one," the little man beamed.

"Excuse me," said Jim, "but how would you have even heard of one? The Ghex told us they, as they put it, 'collected' you as a child."

"Oh, but they've had me down in their labs many a time, particularly Betolo. I believe Betolo regarded me as something of a pet, you see. It was from him that I first heard of the concept of a maguffin. Imagine, the truly universal tool! Whatever you need it to be, it becomes! Where did you get this one? Oh, or did one of you gentlemen invent it?"

Artie grinned. "I wish!"

"I found it in your replicant's lair," said Jim.

"Truly? Did he make it then? Oh, I can hardly wait to meet him!"

"Well, come on!" said Artie. He started toward the door.

At that instant, a chime echoed through the console room, followed by a deep and angry voice demanding, "Let me out!"

Artie snapped his fingers. "Oh, Voltaire! I keep forgetting about him!" He adjusted the monitor and looked in on the giant. "Hello, Voltaire. How are you feeling?"

"Angry!"

"Are you ever anything but?" Artie murmured.

"Voltaire," said Jim. "Do you know who the Ghex are?"

"Of course I do! They are the enemy, relentless, evil. Dr Loveless says that once his damper dome is working, though, they will never find him again!"

"Ah," said Artie. "Well, I'm afraid it's a trifle too late for that…"

Voltaire's great face paled. "Where is he? Have they taken him? Let me out! I must rescue him!"

Jim gave a small smile. "In fact, that's what we're about to do, Voltaire. The Ghex tricked us into turning Dr Loveless over to them…"

"_You did what?"_ And a great foot crashed against the rolling cell's door once again.

"Now, now, Voltaire," said Artie hastily, "we realize now that we were duped, so we're on Ghexia now, ready to go rescue the doctor, and you can help us."

"Help _you?_ No, I will only help Dr Loveless!"

"Then help me, Voltaire," said a very familiar voice. Jim and Artie started and looked at the small figure of Miguelito Loveless standing between them at the console. The little man shrugged, murmured, "It can't hurt, can it?" then continued on with, "You hear my voice, Voltaire?"

"Y-yes, Dr Loveless."

"Good. Then you will join me in helping Mr West and Mr Gordon rescue my other self."

"I don't understand, Dr Loveless. They want me to help rescue you, but you're right there with them?"

"My _other _self, Voltaire. The Ghex are holding my other self, torturing him, experimenting on him. Do you understand?" Leaning back from the console, Miguelito whispered, "Does he have any concept of replicants?"

"Yes," said Jim.

"He's a replicant himself," added Artie. And at the quizzical look on the little man's face, Artie added, "Dr Loveless replicated him after the original Voltaire died."

"Ah." Turning back to the monitor, Miguelito said, "There are two of me, just as once there were two of you. One of you died, and there is only you left. I don't want the other of me to die, but I'm afraid the Ghex haven't any qualms about killing him. In their enthusiasm to find out what makes him tick, they just might do away him by accident. He's your friend, isn't he, Voltaire?"

"Y-yes. Dr Loveless is my friend, my best friend. I would destroy the whole world for Dr Loveless!"

"Well, that's one way to show your love, isn't it?" muttered Artie.

There was another chime, and now the monitor went to a split screen, one half still showing the giant, while the other half showed a pretty, sharp-eyed brunette. "Where am I?" she said, her voice echoing clearly in the console room. "How did I get here? Where is Dr Loveless? Hello?"

"Who is she?" came a frosty voice near Artie's elbow.

"Hmm? Oh, she's just Antoinette, Lily. Er, I mean, Not-Lily."

"Antoinette? And just who is this Antoinette? Plainly she isn't a homing pigeon!"

Jim shot Artie an amused glance. How much like the original did this Lily sound, getting jealous over any other female in the vicinity!

"She's Loveless'… ah… well, I've never been quite clear about the relationship. What do you think, Jim? Is she his girlfriend?"

"They sing together," came Voltaire's voice.

"Where are all these voices coming from?" Antoinette complained. "Who are you? _Where _are you?"

"Now, now, no worries, my dear," Miguelito now spoke up.

The brunette on half the screen broke out into a relieved smile. "Oh, Miguelito! There you are! What's going on?"

"A great deal, my sweet," he replied, hoping such endearments were in character for his other self to say to her. "Don't worry. We shall be together again shortly." He turned to West and Gordon. "What now?"

"Well, we'll take Voltaire with us, along with, ah… what did you call her, Artie?"

"Hmm?" His face showing his distaste, he said, "Oh. Not-Lily."

"Right. Antoinette can wait for us where she is."

"Antoinette can help rescue Dr Loveless!" Voltaire broke in.

"Rescue Dr… but we're talking to him!" cried Antoinette.

"My replicant," said Miguelito. "We must rescue my replicant from the Ghex."

"The Ghex! Why, how did he get into their hands?" said the brunette on the screen.

Leaning close, Jim said to Artie, "You want to explain it this time around?"

One lengthy explanation later, Antoinette was saying, "Well then, yes, I want to come too!"

"You'll be safer right here," said Jim.

"Safer! What do I care about safer? Miguelito needs me!"

Now Artie leaned toward Jim. "Great. Isn't it enough that we'll be taking one woman on this mission?"

"Antoinette can help," Voltaire insisted.

"Yeah? What's she going to do, sing the Ghex to sleep or something?"

"Antoinette is like me," said Voltaire.

"Yes, completely loyal to Dr Loveless. We know," said Jim.

"No!" said Voltaire. "I mean she is like me. She died. There was a fire. I was not there. I don't know what happened. But she died and Dr Loveless made a new Antoinette."

Jim and Artie looked at each other. "And improved her, as he did you?" asked Jim.

"Yes! Yes, she is very strong."

Jim rubbed his cheek meditatively. That _had _been an unusually robust slap, come to think of it.

"Voltaire," said Artie suddenly. "You say you were not there when Antoinette died…"

"Yes."

"And in fact, for some time there, we didn't see you with Dr Loveless, and after a while, we didn't see Antoinette with him either."

"Yes."

"But you're both back now. Why is that?"

Antoinette answered for him. "Dr Loveless said it took him some time to grow us."

"It did? Because the Ghex were able to replicate and replace my Lily within a span of eight hours!" And he glowered at Not-Lily.

"Yes, how do you account for that?" said Jim.

Antoinette spread her hands in a shrug, as did the giant.

"Different techniques, I would say, gentlemen," said Miguelito. Leaning against the console with his arms folded, he said, "After all, the Ghex for the most part aren't interested in producing a superior product, just something quick so they can make off with the original and leave something reasonably similar in its place. Dr Loveless, on the other hand, from what I've heard here just now, was trying to not only replicate people whom he apparently treasured, but was making improvements upon the originals. It's not surprising that his version of replication would take a bit more time."

Leaning in toward his partner once more, Artie whispered, "Are you sure this is the original and not the replicant?"

"As sure as I can be." And to the room at large, Jim said, "All right, both Voltaire and Antoinette are coming with us. Loveless, you and I will take Voltaire and go after your replicant. Artie, you and the ladies will go after Lily."

"All right then, I… Huh? Now, wait a minute, Jim, I said I didn't want Not-Lily with me!"

Jim caught Artie's elbow and pulled him aside. "She looks just like Lily. You'll be able to fool the Ghex into thinking she's the original, and that your Lily's the replicant. Right?"

"Well, I suppose so… Hey! Aw, come on, Jim, you aren't suggesting that I leave Not-Lily behind in my Lily's place, are you? That's just heartless!"

Jim answered not a word, only looked into Artie's eyes for a long moment until Artie had to look away. He understood now. Of course Jim hadn't been suggesting such a thing. No, he had only made that callous suggestion to wake his partner up to the way that he, Artie himself, had been treating Not-Lily. He had been acting as if her presence here were her fault, when of course it wasn't. Not-Lily hadn't asked to be replicated and swapped for the real woman, and Not-Lily wasn't the enemy. All of that - every last part of that - was the Ghex' doing. They were the enemy; Jim just wanted Artie to get that fact fixed firmly in his mind.

And now that Artie had his head on straight, he was ready to go make the Ghex pay for what they'd done.

"All right!" said Artie. "Mr Loveless, if you'll come with me, let's go fetch your replicant's two companions and we'll get this show on the road!"


	15. Rescue Parties

**Rescue Parties**

Dr Loveless glared about the lab he'd been ensconced in. He was still inside the transport bubble the Ghex had used to return him to Ghexia and was now somewhere down in the bowels of the laboratory building, deep within the liquids area, no doubt. Hmm. Well, he had to admit, that was bright thinking on the part of the Ghex since this would make it harder for him to escape them. Harder, but not impossible, oh no! He would have to find a way to maneuver his way out of the liquids area and up to the labs where the atmosphere was oxygenated, of course, but his fertile imagination was already hard at work on that problem, while his sharp eyes took in everything within the lab.

In a liquid environment, all chemicals had to be contained even more carefully than in an air environment. Almost everything in the room was bubble-shaped, and that included the room itself. Ghex scientists and lab assistants floated in and out of the room, some of them stopping to stare at him, their tentacles waving before him in awe that they had at long last recovered the infamous Replicant Prime. He caught snippets of Ghex thought - not that he was intended to hear it, he was sure, but so many of the Ghex gave little consideration to what the specimens might overhear from them and still less reflection to what the specimens might do with such information. Dr Loveless floated inside his bubble of air, playing dumb, soaking in whatever knowledge he could glean from the gawkers.

Some of them, gleefully strobing reds and yellows in wild patterns of stripes and blotches, used the shock generators on their transport bubbles to zap the little specimen, their thoughts howling with delight as he writhed in pain. And as the spasms of electricity faded, he glared back at his tormentors, heartily deploring the fact that his transport bubble was not equipped with a shock generator as theirs were.

Now a Ghex scientist came in, its thoughts blaring out the order of _/Leave! Leave now!/_

All the others obeyed, until only Dr Loveless remained in the room with the scientist. The Ghex waved its tentacles at him, sampling the chemicals that were diffusing from Loveless' transport bubble into the general environment. An amused laugh was projected into the replicant's mind as the scientist said, _/Do not play dumb with me./_

"All right," said Dr Loveless. "Which one are you? And are you going to cut me up into scores of pieces now, or later?"

_/Cutting you up into myriad pieces will serve no purpose. To learn that which we desire to learn from you, we must keep you alive and whole./_

Loveless smiled. "Good luck with that," he said.

Turning livid with concern, the scientist asked him, _/Why, what do you mean?/_

"I mean once you start studying me, I won't stay alive for long."

Loveless could feel the confusion radiating off the space squid. _/Why? What do you mean?/ _it repeated.

The little doctor leaned forward and glared at the Ghex. "I mean that Betolo was smart enough to realize that the rest of you Ghex would try to steal his ideas and copy them. To prevent you from reverse engineering me, he put a little, shall we say, fail-safe device in me. Whatever you might do to study me may well trigger it. And once it's triggered, _FOOM!" _He made an expanding gesture with his fingers. "And that will be the end of your prize specimen. Oh, and possibly," he giggled, "your lab as well!"

The Ghex waved its tentacles in alarm, purples and greens rapidly fluttering over its head and down its quavering appendages. Then, forcing some composure into its demeanor, it said, _/We don't not believe you./_

"That's fine, don't believe me. Go ahead with your studies. You'll find out soon enough whether I'm speaking the truth to you."

The Ghex hovered before him, undulating in uncertainty, its skin a pallid pulsating green. Then, without another directed thought, it turned and left the lab. Dr Loveless was alone.

Perfect. Now he set to work seeing about getting out of here unobserved.

…

Lily lay on her side, silent tears sliding across her face to land on the examination bed under her. A series of "at least" statements pattered through her mind. _At least_ the Ghex had given her some sort of robe, albeit both skimpy and sheer, to cover herself with after she had broken down and complied with the disrobing. _At least _she was in a quiet place now, and alone, thank goodness! _At least _the testing was over - for now. _At least _the Ghex had not discovered she was expecting, or not to her knowledge at least.

At least Artemus and Jim had not been kidnapped and brought to this horrible place. Or at least, she hoped not.

And then the door slid open and she heard a voice speak inside her mind. _/Sit up./_

Wearily, she did what she was told. It hurt too much not to.

…

Jim, along with Miguelito and Voltaire, left the TARDIS behind and headed for the vivisection area. They had to hide themselves frequently to avoid detection, and part of that, as Miguelito pointed out, included keeping their very thoughts quiet. This was not easy, of course, particularly for Jim, whose consciousness was in constant motion, so to speak. It was not simple for Voltaire either, for his thoughts, while neither as quick nor as copious as Jim's, tended to draw attention to him by being quite loud. The three hurried onward nonetheless, peering into the many strange, bubble-shaped labs that they passed along the way, looking for any sign of Dr Loveless, or for that matter, of Lily.

But they were not having any luck. They did see many creatures, both peculiar and familiar, but none of them came anywhere close to human.

Doggedly they kept on, dodging into nooks and crannies and muting their thoughts whenever someone came near, then moving out again after the someone moved on, continuing to search and search.

And just as they were about to reach the vivisection area, all three heard a voice reverberate within their minds: _/Stop right there!/_

…

Artie and the ladies weren't having an easy time of it either. If only Artie had any chance of disguising himself as a guard! But all the guards they had spotted so far were Ghexian, and how could a bipedal humanoid pass himself off as a floating space squid? Well, he couldn't, but that didn't stop Artie from trying to come up with a way anyhow.

Oh, wait a second! "Shh! Ladies, come here!" Artie hissed. Both women looked at him, puzzled, as he pointed out a small dome of a building set off by itself with a number of Ghexian bubbles clustered about it. "Looks almost like a hitching rail, doesn't it?" said Artie.

Antoinette shook her head. "So?"

"So if I can make off with one of those bubbles, I could ride inside it…"

"And drown?" said Not-Lily.

He held up a fifteen-minute breathing device. "Not for a quarter of an hour, at least," he said.

"But the bubble is clear," pointed out Antoinette. "Anyone will be able to see you inside it."

"What if it isn't clear?" he responded. "What if I add something to the liquid inside to obscure me from sight?"

"Then how will you see out?"

"I'll be relying on you ladies," he said. "You'll be my eyes."

Antoinette scoffed, but Not-Lily said, "And you'll trust us? You'll trust me?"

He looked into her lovely brown eyes, so like his own Lily's, and gently laid a hand on her cheek. "Well, I'll just have to, won't I?" he said, giving her one of his patented lop-sided smiles.

Antoinette rolled her eyes and muttered, "Spare me!" But with no other plan to offer in its place, she too agreed to help Mr Gordon with his Ghexian disguise.

"All right," said Artie with a bob of his eyebrows. "The first thing we do, ladies, is rustle ourselves one of those bubbles!"

…

Ha ha! This was easier than he had expected. Dr Loveless poked the skin of his transport bubble on the side contrary to the one in which he wanted to go, and the bubble instantly carried him diametrically opposite. Poke the front to get reverse, poke the right to go left. How simple!

He had, through extreme jostling, managed to detach the bubble from its anchored position in the lab, and now, floating freely, he made his way across to the exit, gradually picking up speed as he became more and more used to this method of locomotion. He rubbed his hands together gleefully and told himself, "Now for freedom and a departure from Ghexia!" He maneuvered himself up to the door, triggering the automatic opener to permit him to depart. He wasn't entirely sure which direction to go from here, but clearly that direction must involve Up, and so, spotting something that vaguely resembled an elevator, he started poking again, moving his bubble away from the lab and toward, he hoped, the upper levels where one could freely breathe normal air.

…

Jim raised his hands and his companions did likewise. A large Ghex in a bubble that looked somewhat metallic bore down on them. _/Who are you? What do you think you're doing?/_ it demanded.

"We were told to report to the deciduous forest area," said Jim. "They want someone to rake up the leaves."

The Ghex floated before them for a minute, gradually turning from blue to deep green, apparently trying to place a call through to the area Jim had mentioned, for they heard the conversation leak into their consciousnesses as _/Coniferous here… Rake leaves? What is 'rake'? Leaves would be another department. You want Deciduous. Deciduous. Deci… Leaf-bearing. Ask for leaf-bearing… You're a guard, aren't you? That explains a lot!/_

Laying a finger on his lips, Jim led the others out of the Ghex' direct line of sight, then around a corner. "That guard's going to raise the alarm shortly. We need to… Where's Voltaire?"

There came a clang and a clatter, and then Voltaire reappeared, dusting off his hands. Jim and Miguelito exchanged a glance, then poked their heads around the corner to see what Voltaire had done. The guard, bubble and all, was nowhere in sight - at first. Voltaire, with his very toothy grin, pointed upwards to where there was an unsightly hole in the ceiling. Jim shook his head and rounded on the giant, his blue eyes glaring. Voltaire met Jim's eyes and drew himself up to his full height, as if challenging the agent to say anything.

Jim frowned, paused, then opened his mouth. "Let's go," was all he said.


	16. Disguise

**Disguise**

A Ghex floated out of the fast nutrients joint and looked around the tethering lot. What… where was its bubble? Quickly it dashed back inside, its panic flashing in the wild patterns and garish colors of its skin as it hurried to hide itself from the deadly clear air before the oxygen could do it in. From its place of safety inside the restaurant, it thought in the report of the loss of its bubble.

Artie was beginning to get the hang of steering this thing, although he couldn't help thinking it was an absolutely backwards way of doing things. He just about needed eyes in the back of his head! How he would have managed if he hadn't had the ladies with him, he didn't know. He herded the two of them along in front of him, keeping up the confident air of someone who was right where he belonged, and probably owned the place.

A thought voice brought them all up short. _/What are you doing?/_

Artie, with one of his fifteen-minute devices covering his mouth and nose, peered through the swirling gloom he had created within the bubble by letting off a smoke bomb inside it. A large Ghex was confronting him, its bubble blocking Artie's progress.

Putting on the bored demeanor of a long-time paper pusher, Artie thought in reply, _/Taking these specimens to intake lab Number Twelve./_

The Ghex turned now to the two ladies, inspecting them quizzically. _/These? Who would ever have collected such inferior specimens?/_

Both women started to protest indignantly, and Artie had to clamp down on his own protest at the insult the Ghex had just handed the look-alike of his dear wife. _/I don't collect them; I just deliver them,/_ he made himself say.

_/Grunt work,/_ the other responded. _/Always the grunt work, as if we large Ghex haven't the brains to do the work the smaller Ghex do! All right, move along. And keep your tentacles alert for a missing bubble. We have a report that someone stopped off for nutrients and didn't tether its bubble properly. There's no telling where that bubble has bobbed off to by now./_

_/Yes,/_ Artie responded. _/What a fumble-tentacled mistake!/_

The large Ghex laughed in agreement, orange and yellow oscillating merrily over its skin, and then it moved on.

Artie let out a large sigh. "All right, ladies, on we go."

…

Jim, Miguelito, and Voltaire hurried along now, trying to cover as much ground as possible before the alarm was raised over the missing guard Voltaire had punched through the ceiling. Jim was scanning the rooms to their left, Miguelito had those to the right, while the giant was keeping watch for anyone paying too much attention to them from any direction. Swiftly they passed into the vivisection area, and Jim had to fight down a sudden wave of revulsion upon seeing what was happening inside the clear walls of the labs. Doggedly he kept going.

They reached the end of the long hall. "I didn't see him, did you?"

"No, Mr West."

"All right, where do we go from here?"

Miguelito frowned at him. "I'm sorry, what do you mean by where do we go?"

"I mean where are the rest of the vivisection labs?"

The little man waved a hand at the hall they'd just come down. "Those were all of them. There is no rest. Or at least, not in the air-breathing area."

Jim glanced back the way they had come, a pensive frown on his face. "He's not here then. If they didn't place him here, what did they do with Dr Loveless?"

…

Dr Loveless floated upwards, wafted along by the strong current of the elevator shaft. He was enjoying this! "Soon I shall be out of this oceanic region and can discard this… Ah, but why should I discard the transport bubble? Once I am in the open air, the bubble ought to be able to move quite fast, faster than I might run. Soon I shall exit this accursed lab entirely!"

A thought struck him and he gave a smug smile. "Oh, and before I leave, I should set up a little surprise for my dear old friends the Ghex!"

…

Artie in his bubble bobbed along, the ladies walking before him. Antoinette spotted something and pointed. With a nod, Artie turned that way to have a look at what she had seen.

The three of them peered into a lab, clear-walled as the labs all were, to see a Ghexian scientist hovering over a woman dressed in what looked rather like a pillow case. She was sitting on an examination bed, her bare legs dangling over the side, one arm stretched out toward the Ghex, her head turned away, her brown hair disheveled as it tumbled loose across her face. The Ghex, waving its tentacles within its bubble, was somehow guiding toward that arm a huge syringe with a large-bored needle.

"Lily!"

Artie's exclamation had the unfortunate effect of expelling the fifteen-minute breathing device from his mouth. Choking on the noisome liquid, he fumbling at the catch that would let him out of the transport device, then exploded out of the bubble and charged into the lab.

His two companions were already in the room confronting the Ghex. _/Who are you?/_ cried the scientist, its colors shifting wildly. _/What are you doing here? Guards! Guar…!/_

To the surprise of the Ghex, and to Artie's surprise as well, Antoinette slammed a fist into the scientist's bubble, sending it smacking into the wall. The needle clattered to the floor as the Ghex lost its mental hold on it. Not-Lily helped Lily off the table and wrapped a cloth around her.

The door glided open to admit two large guards in their semi-metallic bubbles. _/You are under arrest! You are under arrest!/ _the guards declared, one of them going after Artie, the other after Antoinette.

Grabbing a tray full of scalpels and other medical tools, Artie smashed the tray into his guard, sending its bubble crashing into the lintel above the door. The guard came right back after him, and Artie ducked under the examination table, snatching something up off the floor, then coming up on the other side of the table. The guard breezed right over the table, still crying out, _/You are under arrest! Resistance is futile. Resistance is…/_

Artie jabbed the guard with the syringe, fully depressing the plunger.

_/…futile…/_ wheezed the guard, suddenly turning ashen. Its bubble sent forth a narrow fountain from the puncture site as Artie yanked the needle back out. In moments the pressure of the escaping liquid ripped the tiny hole into a gaping wound and the entire bubble sank to the floor, all the liquid draining away. The Ghex within turned a livid shade of grayish-blue and seconds later with an acrid puff, it collapsed in the open air.

Artie turned toward the other guard, only to see that Antoinette was holding her own against it quite well. She had found something that looked like a cross between an oar and a bedpan, and was using it to bat the Ghex about in the air like a bizarre game of tennis.

A glance at Lily showed Artie that Not-Lily had found his wife's regular clothing and was helping her get into them. With a momentary blush he left them to that womanly pursuit and instead went to loom over the Ghex scientist, which was still cringing in its bubble on the floor. Holding up the syringe, Artie gave a wolfish grin and said, "Next?"

_/You've broken our propulsion unit!/ _wailed the scientist piteously.

"I'll break more than that," Artie promised. Hunkering down and holding the needle poised to jab the scientist's bubble, Artie demanded, "Where is the other human who was brought in shortly after Lily?"

_/Lily? What is…?/_

"_She _is Lily!" Artie pointed at his wife, then shoved the tip of the needle against the surface of the scientist's bubble. "Now answer my question!"

_/You… you mean Replicant Prime?/_ And Artie caught a fleeting image of a very familiar figure inside an air-filled transportation bubble.

"Precisely. Where was he taken?"

_/We do not know. We did not see./_

"Yeah, tell me another one," said Artie. He pushed the tip of the needle in harder against the skin of the bubble and was rewarded with a gibbering mental shriek as the Ghex turned pallid, strobing madly.

_/We are not lying!/_

"Oh, really? Then why did the image in your mind when you mentioned Replicant Prime include the fact that he was enclosed in a bubble like this one, hmm?"

_/We…/_

"Choose wisely."

Now Artie heard the mental equivalent of a gulp. _/Replicant Prime was taken to a lower level where the liquid environment would more effectively keep it confined./_

"Ah, see how cooperative you can be when you try? Now, which lower level?"

_/We… We do not know./_

"Aw, what a pity!" And again Artie increased the pressure of the needle against the bubble.

_/The lowest! The lowest level!/_ the Ghex screamed.

"Very good! Thank you for your help." And pulling out one of his knock-out bombs, Artie popped open the catch on the scientist's bubble, cracked the knock-out bomb like an egg, then dropped the bomb within the bubble, and sealed it shut once more.

_/What? What is that? What are you…? Wha…?/_ The voice inside Artie's head faded as the scientist slipped off into a well-deserved nap.

Patting the bubble comfortingly, Artie said, "Don't worry, ol' fellow. You'll figure it all out later," and then stood back up to his feet.

He had to duck again almost immediately. Antoinette was still playing tennis with her guard. Artie was just about to use the needle he still had in hand to threaten that guard with a puncture, when the petite brunette, to Artie's everlasting shock, hiked her skirt and punted the guard right into a large array of lights above the examination table. Sparks rained down all over the room as most of the lights broke. In addition, the bubble exceeded its tensile strength and exploded, its contents dousing the exam table under it and spattering all the occupants of the room.

Artie instantly threw his body in front of his wife, shielding both her and her twin from the mess. Antoinette, on the other hand, got a healthy drenching. "Ugh!"

Artie started to check the space squid flopped on the table, but realizing he didn't know where to find such a creature's pulse, or indeed whether it even had one, he threw up his hands and said to the women, "Come on! Time to get out of here!"

…

The chief Ghex vivisectionist, flanked by a cadre of assistants, floated into the lab where Replicant Prime had been anchored. _/Well, well,/_ it broadcast chortlingly, the patterns on its skin undulating with pleasure, _/and so your career of evading the Ghex has been brought to an end! Did you really think you could fool us forev…/_ The thought trailed off as the vivisectionist realized the anchoring was empty. The assistants spread throughout the lab, searching everywhere, but soon it was abundantly clear.

_/Replicant Prime has escaped us again! Sound the alarm!/_


	17. Alarm

**Alarm**

Jim, Miguelito, and Voltaire were on the move, though where they should go from here was anyone's guess. Having checked all the vivisection labs, they were now wandering through other labs, keeping on eye out for the good doctor. What had the Ghex done with…?

An angry klaxon, not in their ears but blaring within their heads, burst into life. _/Alert! Alert! Alert! Replicant Prime has escaped! Repeat, Replicant Prime has escaped! All Ghex be on the lookout for Replicant Prime!/_ And the alarm was accompanied by a visual of none other than Dr Loveless.

"Well," said Jim as the klaxon faded, allowing them to think again, "it seems that not only do we not know where he is, the Ghex don't know either."

"Is that typical for my replicant?" asked Miguelito.

Voltaire laughed as Jim answered, "Oh, that's beyond typical."

_/Halt!/_ came a voice, and the three turned to see a guard bearing down on them.

"Run!" said Jim. He and Miguelito took off, Jim lending a hand to the smaller man until Voltaire swooped down on them and grabbed up his boss' double. The giant easily outran the Secret Service agent, despite the fact that Miguelito kept crying out for Voltaire to "Stop! Slow down! We're leaving Mr West behind!"

Voltaire ran on.

Jim ran on as well, the guard right behind him. Ahead of them, along a wall, he saw what looked like a vertical tube with an oval opening in it. Not entirely sure where it would lead, but certain that the opening was too small for the large guard on his heels, Jim dove into the tube only to land on top of one of the small transport bubbles. The occupant of the bubble looked up at him and scowled, crying out, "Hey! Get off! You're going to… You!"

And just before the transport bubble rose as far as the opening and the Ghexian guard who had been chasing West took charge of both his quarry and the bubble he was riding upon, Jim looked down through the hyaline skin of the bubble and found himself staring eye to eye with Dr Loveless.

…

"All right, ladies," said Artie, "back to the TARDIS." He crooked his arm to his lovely Lily and she slipped her hand through his elbow.

At least, he assumed this was in fact his own Lily. She and the replicant were wearing identical yellow dresses, so it was a bit hard for him to be sure… Ah, wait. He rested his other hand on the top of her belly for a moment, feeling a small warm presence there. Oh yes, this was his Lily and that was their child. He smiled and they started off.

The next moment the scream of the klaxon invaded all their heads. As the broadcasted communication faded, Antoinette shook the sound out of her head, then smiled. "That's my Miguelito! He never stays captive for long!"

Artie wondered that the alert had not mentioned the ones who had helped the good doctor to escape. Well, they would all meet up at the TARDIS shortly, and once they were well away from Ghexia, they could share their war stories on the way home. For now, "Let's get to the TARDIS," he said again. But instead of strolling along with her arm through his, Artie grabbed Lily's hand and all four hurried away from the intake labs.

They were passing along the long gallery they had come through on their way to find Lily and knew that the TARDIS was now very close by, when suddenly a voice appeared in their heads. _/Halt!/_

Halting was the very last thing Artie intended to do. Pushing the three ladies ahead of him, he hollered at them, "Run!" then took a quick glance at the guard approaching them and followed his own advice.

_/Halt!/_ came the guard's command again. _/Halt or you will be shot!/_

Shot with what? Artie wondered, for a second glance at the guard confirmed to him that the Ghex had nothing on it that resembled a weapon. "Keep going!" Artie urged the women.

_Brzzzap!_

Suddenly there was a large black hole in the right-hand wall just above Lily's head. All three women shrieked and Artie let out an exclamation he would need to apologize for later. The women ran all the harder, heading for the door at the far end of the gallery, and Artie, bringing up the rear, took another quick glance around.

There! High on the long wall to their left was a gun mounted on some sort of swiveling device. It shifted on its metal base, giving an eerie impression that it was alive. The arm upon which the gun was attached moved higher, and seemed to be drawing a bead on the group of women in front of Artie.

"Hey!" he yelled. He grabbed a trio of items out of his pockets, then stopped and jumped up and down, waving his hands. "Hey, over here!"

"Artie!" shrieked Lily. "No, don't!" She looked like she might turn and run back toward him, but both Antoinette and Not-Lily grabbed her arms and hustled her on toward the door.

The gun was shifting toward Artie and the guard was closing with him as well. And now Artie threw a smoke bomb, engulfing the area in a thick fog, following it quickly with an incendiary bomb tossed straight at the guard. It was hard to see precisely what happened with the incendiary, but the mental screech that followed hard on the explosion was a pretty good clue. Calling out, "Run, ladies!" Artie pointed the third item, his sonic screwdriver, at the gun, picked a setting, and thumbed the switch. As the electronic hum of the sonic assaulted everyone's ears, the gun got off one last blast before both its mounting and its inner workings fused, shutting it down. The final blast came straight at Artie and he hit the floor, his eyes involuntarily wincing shut.

He heard the sound of the blast hitting, but felt nothing. Whew, he sighed in relief, the blast had missed him. Glancing toward the doorway, he caught a fleeting glimpse of two figures racing through it. One of them, Antoinette, looked back at him just before disappearing from his sight. He saw her eyes widen, and then she was gone.

Two women, but where was the third? He glanced around…

Lily! In horror he realized there was a figure in a yellow dress lying on the floor between him and the gun. He grabbed her and scurried for shelter beyond the doorway. "Lily! Lily, come on, sweetheart, stay with me! I'm right here. Can you see me, Lily? I'm right here with you." He pulled her close and cradled her, using the sonic to check her over. Oh. Oh, this was bad… "Lily!"

Her eyes fluttered open and she strained to focus on his face. "Ar… Artie..."

"Shh, don't try to speak. I can fix this," he lied, fumbling at the sonic, trying to find a setting, any setting, that would do something to reverse the, oh, the horrendous damage the final blast had dealt to his beloved wife. In the meantime, he forced a smile onto his face for her sake, willing himself to shove back his panic and incipient grief. Lily…

She lifted a hand to reach up and touch his cheek, then caught one of his hands and drew it to her waist. "Feel. Listen. I am not she. I am Not-Lily."

"You're… you're… what?" He listened, his mind probing for the nascent consciousness of their child. She was right; the baby was not there under her heart. For a moment it flashed upon him that she could be the real Lily and their child already gone, but he knew that was not so. She was the replicant.

She smiled up at him. "I could not let her lose you. If I were real, I would want you for myself. Now go. Get out of here before the Ghex find you. Take care of… of the other me."

"You… Are you saying that you jumped between me and that last shot? You took the blast for me?"

For reply she only touched his face again, smiling. And then she slipped away.

She was gone.

He bowed his head over her briefly, then bent to press a kiss to her forehead before hurrying away after the others. He felt awful for leaving her behind, and worse at the thought that he was deliberately doing so in the hopes that spotting a body would slow down the guards. She deserved better, he knew. In fact, she deserved a lot better than the anger he had felt toward her from the first. Just as Jim had pointed out to him earlier, none of this had been her fault. She hadn't asked to be replicated.

Artie hurried on toward the TARDIS, and breathed a sigh of relief as he arrived. The Ghex hadn't found her; she was standing there right where they had left her, looking completely innocent and inconspicuous, just a simple cabinet, nothing worth a second glance. Artie, expecting that the ladies would have already taken shelter inside the TARDIS, pushed on the door to enter, but found it was locked. Locked? His brows knit. Why would it be locked if Lily and Antoinette were inside waiting for him? And if they weren't inside, then where were they?

"Lil?" he called cautiously.

Both women now appeared from behind the time machine. "Oh, there you are!" he said in delight, sweeping his Lily into his arms. He held her for a long moment as if he would never let her go again. And just to reassure himself, he laid a hand over Lily's belly, then smiled in relief and clasped her even closer.

"But, Artemus," she asked him, moving back out of his embrace at last, "where is the other Lily?"

"Ah." Meeting her eyes quietly, he shook his head.

"Oh no!" Her hand sprang over her heart. "But… but how?"

He explained briefly, then brought out his own key and let the three of them into the TARDIS. "But why didn't you just go on inside before I got here, Lily?" he asked.

She gave him an exasperated smile. "I didn't have my key on me when the Ghex took me. It's still lying on top of the dresser back in our stateroom."

"Oh, I see," he said. Then, after giving it a moment's thought, he added, "You know, it's probably just as well that you didn't have the key on you. Imagine if the Ghex had gotten hold of it!" After ushering the ladies inside and closing the door, he crossed to the console and started typing, changing settings on the monitor, searching for signs of… Ah!

"Here they come! Antoinette, you're closest. Would you mind opening the door, please?"

She no sooner did so than the giant Voltaire came charging inside, a small burden in his arms. He halted and gently set down the little man he'd been carrying.

"Voltaire!" Miguelito cried as soon as he was standing on the floor, "I told you to go back!"

"No, Dr Loveless. You are safe in here. You were not safe out there!"

The little man stamped a foot and was about to bring forth another rejoinder when Artie interrupted with, "Where's Jim?"

"That's the problem!" said Miguelito, swinging to face him. "Not only did we not find the other me, but the Ghex have captured Mr West!"


	18. Captives

**Captives**

"Oh, well _done_, Mr West!" Dr Loveless sneered as the pair of them were herded off to one of the labs. "I had everything well in hand to engineer my own escape, and what do you do but show up and ruin everything!"

"Everything isn't ruined," said Jim patiently.

"Oh, it isn't, is it?" the doctor retorted. "And I suppose the two of us being firmly in Ghexian hands - er, tentacles - was your ingenious stratagem to extricate me, hmm?"

Jim looked at him. "There's no call to be snide, Doctor."

Loveless stamped his foot. "There is _every _reason to be snide! The Ghex have captured us, thanks to you! In fact…" and now he glowered still more deeply, "…as I recall, the last view I had of Earth from the interior of a Ghexian transportation bubble was a glimpse of your varnish car. You did this to me, didn't you? You kidnapped me and handed me over to the Ghex!"

Jim sighed. "They made a convincing case as to why they needed you returned to them."

"Returned! What am I, a lost pet? I don't belong to them!"

"And it was only after we handed you over to them that we discovered their duplicity."

Loveless scoffed.

"And so we - and by 'we,' I mean Voltaire and Antoinette as well as Artie and myself - came here to rescue you."

That at last drew the doctor's attention. "Voltaire and Antoinette are here?"

"Yes." And as Jim watched, his fellow prisoner smiled, his usual mischievous demeanor returning.

"Now, tell me something, Dr Loveless," Jim added. "Who is Betolo?"

Loveless turned to glare up at his old nemesis. "Who told you about Betolo?" he asked sharply.

"The Ghex."

"Oh, and I can just imagine what they said!" Loveless gave an angry grunt and fell silent. The cadre of guards continued to march the pair along, stopping at length at one of the labs. Here the guards deposited their prisoners, leaving them inside with the automatic opener on the door disabled and two guards on sentry duty just outside.

"Let's get out of here," said Jim.

The doctor folded his arms. "Oh, get out of here? How?"

Jim grinned. "Well, you're the genius."

Loveless scowled at him.

"Are you saying then, Doctor, that your dislike for me is so great, you'd prefer to remain a captive of the Ghex rather than work with me to escape?"

"I'd prefer that you stay here and rot while I escape!"

Jim shrugged. "Have it your way." And Jim removed his jacket to reach his suspenders, peeling a long white strip from the inner surface of each suspender.

"What are those?" asked Loveless, curiosity overriding his animosity.

"Magnesium strips," said Jim. He knelt by the door and began studying it. "What do you think, Doctor?" he asked, turning toward his longtime enemy. "Where on this door would be the best place to affix the magnesium for it to burn through so we can get the door open?"

"Hmm?" Loveless had picked up Jim's jacket, and now hastily dropped it again and tucked his hands in his pockets.

Cocking an eyebrow, Jim retrieved the jacket and checked all its pockets, both hidden and otherwise. Nothing seemed to be missing. He donned the jacket again, then repeated the question.

Loveless joined him in inspecting the door and its workings. Pointing with a long-fingered hand, the little doctor said, "I would say there. That seems to be a latch, and we know that the door itself slides into the recess on the right here, therefore the opening is here on the left."

"And there's no point in burning through the door on the side that doesn't open," Jim agreed. He pressed the white strips into place along the latch, then lit a match and touched it to the magnesium, igniting it.

As the magnesium burned, throwing off sparks, a trap door popped open in the ceiling and what looked like some sort of gun on a hinged metal arm swooped down. The nozzle squirted white foam all over both the match and the magnesium, soaking everything and extinguishing the fire. The foam gun then zipped back up into the ceiling and vanished into its port.

Loveless, with a smug smirk on his face, said, "Well! That worked!"

Jim scooped and slung the thick foam off his arm and torso, and didn't say a thing.

…

"You left Jim _behind?_" Artie growled at Voltaire, in his towering fury not caring just how much bigger and better able to fight the giant was.

"I must protect Dr Loveless! No one else matters, not even myself!"

"But he isn't…!" Artie checked himself. How would he explain to Voltaire that the man he was protecting wasn't really his precious doctor, and more importantly, would convincing the giant of such a thing really help matters? Scowling, Artie slammed a hand down on the console, then started flipping switches and typing again. "Well, we're not leaving without Jim, and I think you, my large friend, have forgotten that there are two of Doctor Loveless now, and we aren't leaving without both of them, either." He scanned the information coming up on the monitor. "Hmm…"

A sudden thought hit him, and Artie pulled out his sonic screwdriver, chose a setting, and pointed the device at Mr Loveless. Almost everyone in the TARDIS flinched at the high-pitched whine that filled the console room. Then Artie switched off the sonic, glanced at the reading he'd taken, and jammed the futuristic device into a port on the console.

"What did you just do?" asked Miguelito.

"You and Dr Loveless share the same genetic make-up," said Artie. "I made a scan of you so that the TARDIS has that make-up to focus on… which is something I should have done a lot earlier," he added ruefully. More information scrolled onto the monitor and Artie nodded in satisfaction. "All right, I've located the other Loveless. I just hope he and Jim are being held in the same place together." He looked up from the monitor, bobbed his eyebrows, and said, "Well? Who's coming with me?"

…

By now, Jim had discovered that not only was there a fire-suppression system built into the lab, but the doorway system included a secondary interior door that had abruptly slammed down out of the top of the door frame, coming all too close to removing a few of his fingers as he was trying to inspect the lock mechanism a bit more closely. He had a blob of explosive putty in his boot heel, but the fiasco with the magnesium strips had shown him that anything that required a match would be futile. And of course the lock pick itself was useless on a door that had no keyhole at all.

And so at length he sat down on the floor alongside Dr Loveless. The only other place in the room that might serve as a seat was the examination table, and because of the symbolism, neither one of them wanted to sit on it.

"Well," said Jim, "you were going to tell me about Betolo."

"I was?" said Loveless.

Jim glanced at him, one eyebrow arching high.

The little man shrugged. "Well, as we have nothing better to do while we wait for the Ghex to return and turn us into their latest experimental guinea pigs…" He folded his hands over his tummy and looked up, tipping his head to one side as he gazed off into the past. "Betolo was the smallest of the Ghex scientists and therefore the greatest," he said, "because, you see, among the Ghex, size really does matter. The smaller the Ghex, the greater its mental capacities. The bigger Ghex are, shall we say, too dim for complex cerebral achievements and are therefore relegated to more physical endeavors."

"Such as guard work?" said Jim, nodding toward the pair of bruisers just outside the door.

"Precisely! Now Betolo, with his superior brain, greatly simplified and perfected the replication technique. And in the process of doing so, naturally enough, he inadvertently generated professional jealousies among his fellow scientists to the point that they began to plot against him, planning to steal his methods and dispose of him.

"Being the superior scientist that he was, he did not at first believe that his fellow Ghex could be so petty." And Loveless' face shifted into a moue of displeasure. "A sentiment I myself once espoused, before I became all too well acquainted with the nature of Man and Ghex alike. For his part, Betolo went on blithely experimenting, creating better and better replicants and sending them out to replace their originals, never dreaming the evil his own people were making ready to perpetrate against him.

"And then he met me."

Loveless smiled proudly. "As I was, from the Ghexian point of view, a man of the proper stature to achieve greatness in science, naturally I attracted Betolo's attention immediately. He was delighted with me - or, I suppose I should say, with my original - and so he set forth to outdo all of his previous efforts and to make of me the greatest replicant ever created: Replicant Prime!" And Loveless rose and gave a magnificent bow.

"Did it work?" asked Jim.

Fury lit the doctor's eyes. "Do not mock me!" he growled.

"Don't be so mockable then," Jim responded. "So Betolo made you, and the Ghex did what?"

"Oh, they only stole all his research from him and branded him mad, then set out to collect all his replicants in an effort to reverse engineer them. That's what they plan to do with me, you understand. And you played right into their hands!" he added, his temper flaring.

"Yes, and once we realized we'd been tricked, we followed after you to rescue you and foil the Ghex' plans." Turning a puzzled glance toward the doctor, Jim asked, "And you know all this about Betolo how?"

Loveless smiled in response. "That's a very good question, Mr West. A very good question indeed."

"And I'm not going to get a very good answer in return, am I?"

Loveless chuckled. "Why, no, of course not!"

Jim nodded. "That's what I thought. All right, let's get out of here." And he came to his feet and headed for the door again.

"Excuse me?" said Loveless, hopping up and following him. "I had thought you'd given up on getting out."

"Oh, you know me, Doctor. I never give up." And Jim studied the door once more, the gears in his brain meshing away as he pondered this confounding problem.


	19. Breakout

**Breakout**

"I will go, of course," said Voltaire. "I must rescue Dr Loveless!"

"I'm coming as well," said Miguelito.

"And I!" Antoinette chimed in.

Artie looked at his wife. "And you, Lily? I'd, ah, much prefer you stay here in the TARDIS, sweetheart."

She gave him a wan smile. "I'd much prefer I stay here in the TARDIS as well."

He patted her cheek fondly. "Good. You'll be safe here." His hand dropped to tap the top of her belly as well as he added, "You and the little one both. You just rest and recover, hmm?"

She nodded and turned to sit down in one of the chairs in the parlor area while Artie gathered his away team to study the monitor. "All right. According to the TARDIS, this is the site where Dr Loveless has been taken. And here…" he snagged the sonic screwdriver out of its port as he moved over to the storage cabinets, "we have plenty of equipment to use in his and Jim's rescue. Help…" He paused, wondering if it was wise to say such a thing to Voltaire and Antoinette, then finished the statement. "Help yourselves."

And they did.

…

"What are you smiling about now, Mr West?" said Dr Loveless. For Jim had turned from the door and was now opening all the cabinets, peering at the contents.

He pulled out a bottle and showed it to the doctor. "This is iodine, isn't it?"

"Well, tincture of iodine, yes. Why?"

Jim opened the bottle and spilled a little on the floor, then shook his head. "Too yellow."

"Too yell…? Oh, too _yellow! _I see what you're about!" Now Dr Loveless was grinning as he too began rummaging through the contents of the cabinets. "Find me a basin," he ordered, "and I'll mix you up something to suit your purpose, and I assure you, it shall _not _be too yellow!"

"Good," said Jim. "And then I'll need to ask you to do something I know you're easily capable of, because there was a time when you completely fooled Artie and me with this ability."

"And that is?"

"I want you to play dead."

…

Artie and his group were ready to leave the TARDIS. He gave his wife a fond farewell, then herded the rest outside and locked the door behind them. "All right," he said as he pocketed the key, "let's go." And he pointed the way.

Before long they found the door into the long gallery. Not-Lily was no longer there, and Artie wondered briefly what had become of her and what the Ghex might do with the body. In the gallery itself they found no sign of the dead guard either. The gun high on the wall was, according to the sonic screwdriver, still disabled and harmless. They moved on, unaware that they had been picked up on surveillance.

…

Lily puttered about the console room, feeling at loose ends with herself. She had a room of her own here somewhere in the interior of the TARDIS, and most of the time she could find her way to it and back again without getting hopelessly lost in the shifting maze of corridors, but for the moment she couldn't bring herself to just head off to the comfort of her own little sanctuary. Artemus and Jim, along with the others, were somewhere out there amongst those soulless Ghex; how could she enjoy her safety when they were in danger?

"It's at times such as these that I wish I'd taken up knitting," she murmured to herself. The soothing click of the needles would be something to keep herself occupied and distracted, she thought.

Hmm. Artemus had once shown her some of the controls on the console, including the fact that there were some varieties of solitaire card games that could be played on the monitor. Perhaps that would help to pass the time and ease her worries. She brought a chair over and settled in before the monitor, then tried to recall how Artie had accessed the games. Finally, with a shake of her head, she said to herself, "Oh, I don't remember! But maybe this will work," and she slowly typed out, "Solitaire, please."

Instead of the game she had hoped for, the words "HELLO, LILY" flashed up on the screen.

Oh! That caught her by surprise. After a moment's thought, she typed, "Are you my husband's TARDIS?"

"YES," came the reply. "HE CALLS ME ROSALIND."

"Rosalind? After the character in _As You Like It?_" Lily typed.

"OF COURSE. SHE IS A HIGHLY INTELLIGENT WOMAN."

Feeling suspicious, Lily typed, "And are you a highly intelligent woman?"

"I AM A TARDIS, AND THEREFORE BOTH HIGHLY INTELLIGENT AND FEMALE. BUT I AM NOT A WOMAN, JUST AS HENRIETTA IS NOT A WOMAN. YOU NEED FEEL NO JEALOUSY."

Lily's face burned. So Artie had told his TARDIS about that! It had been an embarrassing little incident. She and Artie had been kissing on the sofa of the Wanderer when a bell had sounded. Artemus had assured Lily that it was nothing important; it was only Henrietta. And Lily, eyes green with jealousy, had pushed him away and demanded to know, "Who's Henrietta?" How embarrassed - and relieved - she had felt when Artemus had introduced her to Henrietta the homing pigeon!

New words were blinking on the screen. "ARTEMUS IS THOROUGHLY YOURS, LILY," they read. "YOU NEED FEAR NO RIVALS."

That was a comfort to Lily's heart, and yet she felt compelled to type back, "And how can you be so sure of that?"

"WHEN ARTEMUS' FATHER USED THE CHAMELEON ARCH TO TRANSFORM HIS SON INTO A HUMAN, HE PUT THE SEED OF ME INTO THE FOB WATCH THAT CARRIED ARTEMUS' TIME LORD ESSENCE. ALL OF HIS LIFE ON EARTH I HAVE BEEN WITH HIM. I KNOW HIM AS NONE OTHER."

"You know him better than Jim does?"

"IF THAT IS POSSIBLE." And somehow in the air about her, Lily felt a sense of laughter.

Forgetting all about the game of solitaire, Lily pulled the chair a little closer and poised her hands over the keyboard to have a nice little gossip session with her husband's TARDIS.

…

"Hey! Hey you out there! Help!" came a voice thundering from inside the lab. A hand was bashing against the door, trying to draw the guards attention. When the pair didn't even budge, the plea went non-verbal: _/Help!/_

The guards jumped and turned toward the door. After consulting together briefly, they each moved away from the door to be able to see in through the clear walls.

One of the specimens was on the floor, surrounded by a spreading pool of red liquid! The other was continuing to hammer at the door.

_/Go in and check while we call it in./_

_/Yes./_ The designated guard went to the door, unlocked it, and entered. _/What happened?/_

"He said he wasn't going to be a captive for the rest of his life," said the taller specimen. "Then he grabbed that scalpel there and stabbed himself. Not very smart of you, leaving sharp metal objects in the lab with us."

"No, not very smart at all!" The small body on the floor suddenly popped its eyes open and plunged the scalpel into the guard's transport bubble.

There was a shriek and the guard reflexively grabbed telekinetically at an array of lab equipment and sent it raining over the two prisoners. Jim punched the guard in the bubble, causing the seeping cut to explode, dumping the Ghex from within it out onto the floor where it shortly expired in the deadly air.

The other guard, its voice mentally broadcasting the warning that the prisoners were attempting to escape, tried to shut the door again, but Jim shoved the examination table into the opening, blocking the door from closing. He then skidded over the top of the table and out the door, while at the same time the little doctor scurried under the table and set off running.

_/Halt!/_ the guard ordered. _/Halt or you will be shot!/_

Loveless didn't even look back, leaving Jim to deal with the guard; he simply scampered off as fast as his legs could carry him. And as Jim tackled the guard only to have the transport bubble squirt right out of his arms, Loveless spotted a bolt hole and dove into it, realizing only too late that it was the entrance to yet another elevator tube. Worse, this one was carrying him down again, down into the lower levels, the flooded levels. And this time he didn't have a protective bubble of air around him for him to breathe!

As for Jim, a dozen more guards came swooping in now and surrounded him. He was a prisoner once more.


	20. Pursuing

**Pursuing**

Artie and his group emerged from the long gallery and moved onward cautiously. Artie checked the directions Rosalind had loaded into the sonic screwdriver, then pointed and hissed, "There."

They slipped along quietly, keeping watch. Curious that no guards were showing up. Why was that, Artie wondered, trying to decide whether this was a bad sign, or whether he should instead simply be grateful for small favors.

It wasn't much further. The last known location of Dr Loveless' biometric signature was right around this corner. Waving the others to stay back behind him, Artie popped his head around the corner and had a look.

…

The fact that he could not swim threatened at first to paralyze the magnificent intellect of Dr Miguelito Loveless as he descended inexorably toward the waters below. But then the knowledge of what he _could _do exerted itself, overriding all thoughts of his inabilities: as a practitioner of yoga, he had often demonstrated his proficiency at holding his breath to improbable lengths of time. And so, as he watched the water level below him rising to engulf him, he drew in one deep breath after another, hypersaturating his lungs with precious oxygen. And as he felt the liquid creeping up over his legs and torso, he took in one final breath and let the waters take him.

…

Well, this must be the place. Artie could see one of the labs standing open, the examination table protruding through the open door. No one seemed to be around, so he hurried over, his group right behind him. Artie, Miguelito, and Antoinette all ducked under the table to enter. Voltaire started to pull the table out of his way to follow them in, but Artie stopped him. "Leave the table where it is," he ordered.

"Why?" said Voltaire, a pugnacious look on his big face.

"Because without the table to block the door, we might all wind up locked within, of course," said Miguelito.

Voltaire, still upset at being left outside, subsided at the words of his supposed boss.

Artie glanced over the dead Ghex quickly, then knelt by the red puddle on the floor. Joining him, Miguelito inquired softly, "Is that blood?"

Artie touched the liquid and sniffed it. "No. I'm not sure what it is, some combination of chemicals, I would guess, but it doesn't smell like blood."

"Then why is it here?"

Artie gave a shrug. "I'm assuming your other self mixed it up to resemble blood and used that to lure the guards into opening the door." He led the way back out of the lab, then glanced around. "Hmm. Let's see what I can pick up with the sonic screw…"

_/Halt!/_

…

Loveless opened his eyes as he continued to descend through the liquid atmosphere of the Ghex' natural environment, watching the wall of the tube for some way out. There! He grabbed at the edge of the opening and hauled himself out into a corridor. The labs around him seemed to be deserted, no doubt because of the alarm of a few minutes before when he and West had broken free on the level above. Well, let the Ghex search for him up there! Taking hold of any projections he could find in the wall, he pulled himself along, looking for the nearest tube that would return him to the regions of air.

And as he did so, he spotted a curious item lying on the floor, apparently dropped and forgotten. It looked intriguing enough for him to work his way over to it and pick it up. He immediately tucked it into a pocket, not having air enough to examine it now. Returning to the wall, he continued his search for an exit from this watery region.

…

Jim, a prisoner anew, was weighing his options as he was escorted along by the cadre of Ghexian guards. He had a couple of Artie's knock-out bombs in ready reach along with the fifteen-minute oxygen mask, but knock-out gas would be of no use against guards who would not be breathing the air anyway. The explosive putty was still in his boot heel, but he would need some excuse to get at it. The same went for the knife at the back of his collar. The one thing he was able to do, at least, was to drop a little trail of a special powder Artie had concocted for him. Invisible to the naked eye, it made for an easily trackable trail when viewed through special glasses. Come on, Artie, Jim thought, use those glasses…

…

Loveless' lungs were bursting by the time he found another elevator tube. He stuck his arm into it before entering just to ensure that it was in fact an ascending tube, and was overjoyed to discover that it was. He plunged on in through the opening and waited in an agony of oxygen starvation for the upward flow to take him out of the water and into the air.

…

Terrific, thought Artie as a large Ghexian guard loomed over them. _/Halt!/_ cried the guard, despite the fact that the little group of four had not been moving to start with. _/You are under arrest, Replicant Prime! Come along quietly! Resistance is futile!/_

"He thinks you're the other Loveless," Artie murmured to Miguelito sotto voce. "We might be able to turn this to our advantage."

Miguelito nodded and opened his mouth to address the guard, but the Ghex wasn't done ordering them around. _/You are under arrest, Replicant Prime! Come along quietly! Resistance is futile! You will be…/_

What precisely he would be, though, they did not learn, for at this point Voltaire repeated his performance of earlier and punched the guard through the ceiling. This time unfortunately, instead of the action going unnoticed, it brought about an immediate sounding of the klaxon of the mind. All four threw their hands over their ears even though that gave them no respite.

Removing his hands from his ears, Artie ran a quick scan around them with the sonic screwdriver, and pointed. "All right, Dr Loveless went that way, and Jim… Hmm… I wonder…" Reaching into a pocket, he pulled out a pair of oddly-colored glasses and put them on. "Ah! Jim left me a trail to follow. Let's split up then. Miguelito, you come with me to find Jim and…"

Split up they did, but not the way Artie suggested. Voltaire snatched up Miguelito and took off following the direction the doctor had gone, Antoinette running after them as quickly as she could, the three of them leaving Artie standing all by himself.

"Hey!" he yelled as they all pelted off around a corner and disappeared. For a moment he considered running after them to get Miguelito back, then threw up his hands. "So much for my away team!" he groused, then holding his special glasses before his eyes, he set off following the trail of shining powder in order to catch up with his partner.

…

Jim's eyes roamed constantly as he searched for something, anything, that he could use against the guards. And then a klaxon began to scream out the information that Replicant Prime had been spotted and was resisting arrest.

Immediately half the guards peeled off to join in the search. The remainder opened the door of the closest lab and thrust their prisoner within.

_/Hey!/_ the little scientist within protested. _/Occupied!/_

_/We will return for it shortly,/_ a guard responded brusquely. Leaving one of their own to watch over Jim, the others dispersed to deal with this latest emergency.

"Hello," said Jim to the specimen sitting on the examination table. It was a curious creature, bipedal and mostly humanoid, but also strongly feline, especially the triangular ears and the long and lashing tail. "What are you in for?"

_/Hush,/_ ordered the scientist. _/You are interfering with the examination!/_ The Ghex telekinetically maneuvered a long sharp probe into the creature's ear, and from the cat person emanated a strong feeling of fear and pain, washing over Jim.

"You're hurting her," said Jim, not entirely sure how he knew that the cat creature was female.

_/Of course we are hurting the specimen!/_ the scientist replied crossly. _/That is the whole point, to discover the pain threshold of a P'ra'arau and study how it responds to the pain stimulus./_

The P'ra'arau hissed, baring an impressive set of fangs.

"Keep that up, and you'll learn the answer the hard way," Jim predicted.

Sure enough, as the scientist continued to probe at the P'ra'arau, poking her with increasingly larger and sharper instruments in increasingly sensitive areas of her body, she let out a furious snarl and swiped at the scientist's bubble with a handful of wicked claws.

Instantly a crackle of electricity filled the air and the P'ra'arau recoiled, curling in on herself, mewling piteously as the current jolted her.

"Leave her alone!" said Jim.

_/No interfering!/_ said the scientist. _/Guard! Your prisoner is meddling. Put a stop to this!/_

_/At once,/_ the guard replied. And now Jim too was engulfed in an intense electrical current that sent him collapsing to the floor, writhing in agony until he mercifully lost consciousness.

_/Hmm!/_ said the scientist. _/Good work, guard. But it occurs to us that perhaps we should record the prisoner's responses to stimulus as well./_


	21. Pursued

**Pursued**

Dr Loveless threw himself out of the elevator tube and gasped happily as he reveled in the delight of breathing once again. A quick glance around told him that he was alone for the moment, but the klaxon sounding inside his head let him know that would not be the case for long. He hurried for the nearest lab and rushed on inside it as the door slid open to admit him.

Oops! The lab was not empty. Two Ghex, one large and one small, turned to look at him as he entered. Before the door could slide shut again and trap him, Loveless turned and hightailed it out again, the larger Ghex swooping after him, the new alert filling everyone's mind with the update on Replicant Prime's location.

And as he ran, Loveless realized that in the brief moment he had been in that lab, he had spotted the strange sight of an unconscious cat person lying on the examination table, and on the floor below the table, an equally unconscious James West.

…

"Take me back!" cried Miguelito, but Voltaire only kept on running, carrying the little man in his arms. Antoinette trailed after them, gamely trying to keep pace with her much-taller companion.

"The other Dr Loveless went this way!" said Voltaire. "We will find him and rescue him!"

"Yes, yes, Mr Gordon said that, but where did he go after he started in this direction? You didn't wait to hear what else Mr Gordon might have said," Miguelito pointed out.

"He will be easy to find," said Voltaire.

"He will? When all the Ghex are looking for him and he will be hiding from them as best he can?"

"Of course!" the giant insisted. "He will see me and come right to us."

Miguelito fell silent, an extremely sarcastic "Oh, yes, of course he will!" dying on his lips as they raced around a corner and into a nest of Ghexian guards. And as the guards began to cry out, _/Halt! You are under arrest!/_ Voltaire backpedaled and took off in a new direction, Antoinette still hurrying after him.

…

A group of Ghex floated past at high speed. As soon as they were gone, Artie popped out of his hiding spot and continued on, tracking the trail of powder. How nice to be able to follow such a trail and not have to worry about someone's feet trampling through the powder and scattering it all over the place! He hurried toward the next corner, the glasses on his face, his eyes on the trail.

_Wham! _The small body came hurtling round the corner and smacked right into Artie. He grabbed at the creature as they both hit the floor. "Let go!" the small being cried out, struggling to get free. "They're after me!"

"Dr Loveless?" Artie gasped. "Or are you Mr Loveless?"

"Mr Gordon? Oh, of course! You _would _be here. Let me go!" The little man wrenched free and took off running again.

Moments later a guard swooped around the corner as well, rapidly gaining on the little doctor. As the guard's cries of _/Halt!/_ echoed in Artie's head, the agent pulled out a smoke bomb and threw it, filling the hall with a cloud of fuchsia haze. The guard rose up higher, trying to get above the smoke to see its quarry, but the doctor had disappeared. The guard then turned back to see the source of the smoke, but could find no one. Angrily the guard broadcasted the latest location of Replicant Prime, then continued on with the search.

Artie peeked out from beyond the corner where he had darted to escape the guard's notice. The guard was moving on, and Loveless was nowhere in sight. Loveless - now that he thought of it, Artie realized the man must have been Dr Loveless, considering what a well-tailored suit he'd been wearing. Putting the glasses on again, Artie scanned the floor and quickly spotted Jim's trail again. This led him to a lab right down the hall. He slipped up to the lab and peered in through the clear walls, only to find that Jim was inside it, laid out on the floor. Worse, there was a Ghex scientist hovering over him, a large pointy probe floating by its side. Jim had become its experimental specimen!

…

Dr Loveless ran on as fast as his legs could carry him, wishing he had Voltaire here with him. It was true, of course, that Voltaire was so large he could hardly hope to avoid detection, but he could also carry the little doctor in his arms and make their escape that much easier.

But he wasn't here. Or make that, Voltaire was somewhere within the labs, at least according to Mr West, but he was not here at Dr Loveless' side, so there was no point in dwelling on what he did not have. Right now the main problem for the little doctor was to find somewhere in which to secrete himself long enough for him to collect his thoughts and catch his breath.

There were the labs, of course, all along the corridor he was running through. All the ones he had seen so far were occupied, and he certainly was not going to dash inside any of those again, thank you! No, he needed somewhere else, and not a tube that might take him down below again either. One that was going up, yes, that was a possibility, if he could just find one.

Hmm… All right, in fact he had been in such a tube lately. Perhaps he should not have abandoned it so quickly.

He ran on. The klaxon was still there in his head. Background noise it was, and therefore an annoyance to him, as he was a man who hated noise. Worse, it was confusing as well, for the Ghex seemed to have the mad idea that he was both here and somewhere else at the same time. How foolish! What, did they think he was two people, able to be at two places at once?

Two people! Loveless suddenly halted in his mad dash through the labs. Two people! But of course! "Oh, Mr West," he murmured to himself, "why didn't you mention that _he _is here as well?" Listening to the alert screaming through his head, he worked out the other location the guards were converging on and set his own course to intersect it as well.


	22. Reunion

**Reunion**

The little Ghexian scientist gleefully recorded its findings, amazed at the high level of pain tolerance the guard's prisoner possessed even while unconscious. Oh, but it hoped it would be able to keep this one and run the full series of experiments on it!

The door slid open. Being devoid of ears, the Ghex did not hear the clattering sound of the strange item that came in through the door, but it did sense the vibrations the device was creating. Puzzled, the Ghex turned to look at it.

It was… baffling. It looked like some sort of small rodent, being wedge-shaped and gray with a long whip-like tail. And yet it was non-organic; the Ghex could sense from it neither sentience nor vitality. The Ghex reached out telekinetically and picked up the little intruder to examine it. Yes, it was in fact a mechanical device with small wheels underneath it to move it along, the wheels themselves being set in motion by a wind-up mechanism within. But where had it come from?

The Ghex turned toward the door again, but before it could complete that turn, the hatch on its transport bubble was popped open and something was dropped inside, something that floated down within the Ghex' liquid environment, leaking out a gaseous substance that… that…

Moments later the Ghex was unconscious, victim of another of Artie's knock-out bombs. Artie closed the lab door and locked it, then knelt by his partner, checking him over swiftly. He scowled and muttered, "Electrocution, eh? Not a lethal jolt, but not something I'd want my worst enemy to experience, much less my best friend. These Ghex are rapidly becoming my least favorite alien species!" He hopped up and rummaged through the medical supplies available in this lab, cringing at some of the items he found, before locating a drug he thought would do the trick.

"This should be suitably adrenergic," he said as he loaded some of the liquid into a syringe, then administered it to Jim.

For a moment, nothing happened. Then Jim's eyes popped open and he sat bolt upright on the floor. "Wow!"

"You all right, Jim?" Artie asked anxiously. "Maybe I gave you a little too much!"

Jim was on his feet now, pacing, burning off energy. "No, no, I'm fine. How's the cat girl?"

Artie had to admit that he'd been so focused on his partner, he really hadn't given the other captive much thought. He looked over her now. She too, he found, had suffered a non-lethal level of electrical shock. Hoping the same drug that had brought Jim around would work well on her also, he loaded a new syringe with a smaller dose, then started to give her the shot.

The tip of the needle barely pricked her skin before her eyes flew open and one well-clawed hand fastened itself around Artie's throat. She snarled and he withdrew the needle. "J… Jim?" he rasped.

"No!" said Jim to the cat girl, laying a hand on her arm, trying to radiate friendship and kindness. "He isn't one of the Ghex. We want to help you."

_/Help you,/_ Artie echoed mentally, willing the creature to sense their good intentions.

Slowly the grip lessened and the claws retracted. She tipped her head at the two men before her, then made a sound like an inquisitive cat: "_Mrow?_"

"Friends," said Jim again as Artie went to check his neck in a mirror and quickly swabbed the set of nick marks now decorating his skin.

The cat girl looked at them both, then spotted the Ghex in its bubble unconscious on the floor. With a hiss she pounced on it and before Jim and Artie could drag her away, the little scientist was dead, its lifeless body hanging from her jaws. Contemptuously, as if to say that such a thing was not worth eating, she spat it out, then sat down to wash her face clean in a supremely catlike manner by licking her hands and using them to rub at her face.

Artie gave a low whistle and Jim said, "Remind me never to cross a P'ra'arau!"

"Oh, is that what she is?" said Artie.

Satisfied, the cat girl arose and stretched languorously, then spied the little wind-up mouse Artie had used to distract the scientist. She jumped on it, cuffed it with a hand, snatched it up by its tail, then batted it up under the table. But now she lost sight of it and also lost interest, and so she crossed to the door and padded back and forth in front of it. "_Mrow?_" she said.

Exchanging a glance with his partner, Artie followed the P'ra'arau to the door and unlocked it for her. As soon as the door slid open, she rocketed out of the lab and was soon out of sight.

"I wonder does she know where she's going," said Artie.

"Well, I know where we're going," said Jim.

"Right. The Ghex are converging on one of the Lovelesses, and we need to go help." He scooped up the toy mouse and stowed it in a pocket, then followed Jim out the door to go find the Ghex' prey.

…

Miguelito and his companions hurried away, constantly away, as more and more groups of guards spotted them. This was no good, thought the little man. Looking about, he pointed at a door and said, "There! Take me in there, Voltaire!"

Instantly the giant obeyed. Miguelito squirmed out of the big man's grip once they were inside and rushed to press a switch on the wall. "There!" he said in satisfaction as the door slid shut again. "Closed and locked!"

"But, Miguelito, where are we?" asked Antoinette.

"One of the few places no Ghex likes to come," he replied. "Look!" He pointed up at the ceiling. His two associates looked up as they were bid and gasped.

…

Dr Loveless was finding it harder and harder to escape detection. Finally in desperation, he darted into an empty lab to hide from yet another patrol sweeping the halls. "This won't do," he murmured to himself. "I must get there! I must find Voltaire and Antoinette! But how am I to…?" And in looking about the lab for anything of use, he happened to glance up and noticed a hatch in the ceiling. "Hmm… Now what might that be for?" he asked himself. Scrambling up onto the examination table, he then climbed up onto the overhanging movable light fixture, and from that perch he managed to push the hatch open and squirm his way inside.

Ah! This seemed to be a maintenance crawlway, or floatway he supposed. The floor likely wasn't trustworthy; he doubted if it would hold up even under his weight, since the Ghex would not have a need to walk upon it. If only he could float as well!

Wait… From his pocket he pulled out that intriguing little item he'd happened upon in the waters below. In all the rush and bother since he'd popped out of the elevator tube, he had nearly forgotten about it. Now he turned it over in his hands, studying it. It seemed so familiar…

And then he began to laugh. Why, of course! The design was different, suited to Ghexian telekinetic manipulation rather than made to fit human hands, but its purpose shown through to him. This was a maguffin! He checked it carefully, looking for the proper setting. Ah!

And now he bobbed up into the air. Excellent! There were various crossbeams up here, but he was fairly certain he could dodge among them with little trouble. After all, that was surely what the Ghexian maintenance beings did when they had to work up here. Briefly Dr Loveless listened to the broadcast chatter from the Ghexian guards before setting out once more to catch up with his companions and his other self.

…

"But, Miguelito," said Antoinette, craning her neck to look up and around, "what is this place?"

"This, my dear Antoinette," he replied, spreading out his arms, "is the aviary."

"I don't understand," said Voltaire, a great frown across his broad face, "why would the aviary be a place no Ghex likes to come?"

"Because an aviary is full of _birds_, Voltaire. And _birds _are the natural enemy of the Ghex." And as the giant continued to look baffled, Miguelito explained, "Well, think of it! Birds fly through the air, while the Ghex are water-dwellers. Birds occasionally swoop down and pluck water-dwellers from their normal environment, carrying them off to die and be eaten. Ergo, the Ghex hate birds."

"Then why do they even collect them?" asked Antoinette, still looking up.

The little man shrugged. "No one has ever explained it to me, but I presume part of the reason is that they collect everything, and part of it is precisely _because _they hate birds. What greater revenge than to take something that lives quite literally 'as free as a bird' and cage it here, adding to that vengeance the ignominy of being used for cruel and inhumane experiments?"

Voltaire and Antoinette continued to look up. Birds of all fantastic descriptions hunched in cages just barely larger than themselves, brutally imprisoned in such a manner that they could not even stretch out their wings. Some, seeing the newcomers here in the avian domain, shook their cages, sending forth mental impressions pleading for pity, to be set free. From others emanated vengeful flashes of what the birds would do to the Ghex - yes, and to these three puny creatures as well - if only their cages were opened and they were free to do as they pleased. And from yet others - indeed, from the vast majority of the occupants of the cages - came only a dull and listless sense of dejection, the torpid apathy of broken creatures that had long since given up and resigned themselves to this living hell.

Miguelito Quixote Loveless strode over to a control panel and studied it avidly. He then began to throw switches on it, and some of the cages began to descend.


	23. Liberating

**Liberating**

The P'ra'arau went racing along, at first intent only on finding her way out of here. After a bit she slowed down and began to sniff, her vibrissae quivering, her sharp eyes taking in everything around her. How was she to leave? She could not remember how she had been brought in. She spread her senses wide, seeking an exit, seeking perhaps someone leaving that she could shadow and so find the way out.

_Hss! _Someone's deep anguish washed over her. The P'ra'arau did not understand the words pouring forth from the mind in torment, but the raw agony struck a chord with her. She lashed her tail and circled back, prowling among the labs she'd just come past, hunting for the source of the pain.

There! She slipped up to the wall of a certain lab, seeing within it a being much like the ones who had just released her from her prison. Words were flooding forth from that creature, overflowing the P'ra'arau's consciousness. She did not know what the creature was saying, but she certainly knew what it meant. The squids. The squids had captured that being and were torturing it just as they had tortured the P'ra'arau. With all her feline heart, she hated the squids!

Inside the lab, a human woman lay curled up on the table, her mind in turmoil. "Why? Why did you do this? Wasn't it enough that I died? Why did you have to bring me back? Is this some kind of experiment to see how many times you can kill me?"

The little Ghex floating in its bubble by her side informed her of the plans they had for her, and fury flamed up in her eyes.

"No! I won't cooperate! You can't make me! You left me to take her place once, but I know what you're up to now and I won't…" Her words dissolved into a scream of agony as the Ghex struck her with an excruciating jolt of electricity. As the woman's mind began to close down under the assault, the door slid open and a snarl echoed through the lab.

Then the electricity was gone. The woman lay gasping, almost giggling at the sudden respite from pain. "What…?"

She looked around and saw her tormentor on the floor, its bubble ripped open, its body savaged. Standing over it licking its hands clean was a creature that was like both a cat and a human. Slipping down off the table, the woman whispered, "You saved me."

The cat girl glanced at her and purred.

The woman held out a hand, and the cat girl sniffed it cautiously before rubbing against the hand. At the touch their minds touched as well, and the woman understood. "If I knew the way out of here, I would tell you," she said gently. "Or… wait… Yes, there is a way! Let me see…" She rose and ransacked the cabinets, finding a bit of cloth she could use as paper and some colored liquid to use for ink. Swiftly she wrote out a message, then knelt before the cat girl again and touched her hand. As clearly as she could, she pictured in her mind the long gallery in which she had died, the doorway beyond, and the exact location of a certain large cabinet. "Go up to the cabinet and give this to whoever answers the door," she told the cat girl, willing the strange being to understand her.

The P'ra'arau took the cloth, looked it over, sniffed it, then grasped it delicately between her teeth. With a lash of her tail, she sprang off through the open door and away.

The woman stood to her feet and watched her rescuer out of sight. "I do hope she took my meaning," she said. After a brief further search in the lab, she found the remnants of a yellow dress with a large black hole burned in the bodice. Grimacing, she pulled it on over the small shift the Ghex had dressed her in for the reanimation, and then Not-Lily left the lab.

As soon as she entered the main hallways, the broadcast klaxon hit her head, informing her of the Ghexian hunt for Replicant Prime. She winced at all the many voices flooding her brainwaves with entirely too much information. Somehow amidst all that noise, a thought of her own found its way through. With the Ghex busily racing about searching for Dr Loveless, perhaps they would be too busy to deal with an additional crisis.

And so Not-Lily set out to provide that additional crisis, for she made it her mission to open as many of the other labs as she could, liberating all the specimens in them and sending them off to the TARDIS on the heels of the cat girl.

The corridors of the labs began to get crowded.

…

As Jim and Artie moved through the halls, using the Ghexian alert to lead them to Loveless, Jim suddenly said, "Are you thinking what I'm thinking, Artie?"

"Well, considering that even before I reverted to being a Time Lord, I always could read your mind…" He gave Jim a big grin, and then they both started opening the doors to all the labs they passed, liberating the specimens and locking up the scientists.

Now the corridors were getting really crowded.

…

Miguelito selected carefully among the cages, choosing birds that were neither too lethargic nor too angry. He needed three birds that he could make a deal with. He brought down one cage after another, stepped up to the occupant - being sure, of course, that he did not step too close - and by speaking to it through mental imagery, he offered each one freedom in exchange for an agreement to leave him and his companions alone.

It took a while. Most of the birds eyed him with perfectly understandable suspicion, and a few made a display of accepting the terms. But having long been one of the Ghex' experimental specimens himself, the little man knew how to read thoughts behind thoughts and shrewdly saw through the duplicity of those whose promises were mere shams.

At length, though, he found the three he needed. He used the switches to maneuver those cages down into a small cluster right by the control panel itself, then opened the first. Its occupant hopped out awkwardly, spread out its wings, then took a few hesitant steps and launched itself into the air. Its flight was graceless at first, but gradually the bird found its rhythm and soared up.

A great racket broke out now as many of the other birds, including those who had seemed so broken-spirited before, began to clamor to be set free as well, to stretch their wings and follow their nature into the air.

"Quickly, Antoinette, into the cage," said Miguelito. She obeyed him unquestioningly - or at least until he flipped a switch and locked her into the cage.

"What are you doing?" she cried.

"Just trust me!" He now opened the second cage, that of the largest bird he had selected. It too came forth falteringly, lumberingly. As it tried out its wings, Miguelito shooed Voltaire into the cage the bird had just vacated and locked him in as well.

And now the little man released the final bird. As it also took to the air, screeching its pleasure at being able to fly once more, Miguelito shoved its cage right up to the control panel, nipped inside the cage, pulled the door shut behind him, then touched the switch that locked him in as well.

"What are you doing, Miguelito?" asked Antoinette.

With a magnificent grin, he said, "Watch and see!"


	24. Wings

**Wings**

Dr Loveless was certain that this access hatch was as close an approach to the center of the hunt as he would find. He popped it open and looked down. A Ghex scientist was pressed up against the clear wall peering out at the scene unfolding outside the lab, while its test specimen sat on the table resting its heads on its knee.

Hmm. How, Dr Loveless wondered, would he be able to, ah, neutralize the Ghex without drawing its notice first? He thought instantly of the maguffin. Surely he could use it to reverse the polarity of its transport bubble's shock generator so that when the Ghex attempted to jolt anyone with electricity, the jolt would turn inward instead and zap the occupant of the bubble. He grinned at the thought, for he really hated those shock generators!

This was a small maguffin though; no doubt its range was limited. But if he could only get close enough to the Ghex…

Quietly he floated down out of the hatch, landing gently behind the scientist. He quickly reset the maguffin, then held it close to the shock generator and activated the universal device.

Inevitably at such close range, Dr Loveless drew the Ghex' attention. The space squid spun about. _/You!/_ It turned to look through the wall, then turned back again, mad patterns strobing over its skin. _/But… but you are out there! The guards have you surrounded in the aviary!/_

Grinning, Dr Loveless skipped back a couple of steps, dropped a small something into his pocket, then poked his thumbs into his ears and waggled his fingers at the Ghex, sticking his tongue out at it in a horrendously rude display.

_/You!/_ cried the little Ghex again. _/We shall capture you!/_ And it turned on its shock generator.

A loud zapping sound filled the lab. The specimen on the table cringed. And when the zapping ceased, the Ghex was bobbing in midair, nicely cooked inside its bubble.

Dr Loveless now pressed his own face against the lab wall, taking in the scene outside. Ghexian guards were massing more and more before the door the scientist had identified as that of the aviary. The guards were no doubt talking among themselves, but from in here the little doctor could hear very little of their mental chatter. And so he opened the door and hid just inside the doorway, listening out of sight as the guards called out orders among themselves, working feverishly to get the aviary door unlocked so they could force their way inside and capture Replicant Prime.

Or so they thought.

…

Miguelito thrust his arm through the bars of the cage he had locked himself inside and maneuvered some of the switches on the control panel, lowering all the cages to the floor. "Can you hear them?" he called out to his replicant's two dear companions. "The Ghex guards are right outside that door, trying to get it open. I locked them out, you see. And now…" He pressed another switch, and with a loud click, the door began to open.

Then he pressed more switches, and other doors unlocked and opened. As the guards began to swoop into the aviary, the multitude of imprisoned birds, their cages now opened, began to swoop out.

It was carnage. The birds, seeing their hated captors within their grasp, rushed from their cages and winged after the guards, pouncing on them, bearing them aloft, shredding their transport bubbles, then dropping them to the hard floor. Many of the birds gorged themselves. The first ranks of the Ghex were devastated. Those toward the back, realizing what was happening, turned to flee, only to find that wings are faster than bubbles. Very few of the guards escaped.

Some of the birds turned their wrath upon the three humans hiding within the cages. Here Miguelito's prowess in choosing the cages for himself and his companions shone, for the angry avians, snapping at the trio with beak and claw, were unable to get at them. In the end the frustrated birds flew off to attack easier prey.

And into this scene of madness ran Jim and Artie. They arrived just moments after the door to the aviary sprang open and the first volley of birds came winging out. A couple of the birds swooped after them. The two men ducked for cover. Spotting an open lab, its door just beginning to close, Jim and Artie ran for it, shoving it open again just enough to them to burst inside, then closing and locking it behind them.

"Great jumping balls of St Elmo's fire!" Artie exclaimed. "How did that happen?"

"I must assume that was the work of my original, gentlemen," said a very familiar voice. And as the men turned to face their little nemesis, Dr Loveless added, "I believe the words 'Thank you' might be in order just now."

…

Her eyes narrowing suspiciously, Lily was just in the midst of typing, "But how can you be certain that Artemus is mine and mine alone? Haven't there been other women he liked?" when a chime sounded through the console room. "What is that?" she asked aloud.

For answer, the monitor screen flicked from the lengthy conversation between the TARDIS and Lily to show the corridor just outside the main door. A creature that looked remarkable like an anthropomorphic cat was crouched at the door, its cry of "_Prrrow?_" sounding through the speakers.

Lily gaped at the amazing creature for a moment, her hand pressed to her heart. "What do I do?" she wondered aloud.

The monitor screen flicked to words again, which read, "MAY I SUGGEST YOU ANSWER THE DOOR?"

"Are you sure?" said Lily. "What if that's a dangerous beast?"

"WHAT IF IT IS A REFUGEE FROM THE GHEXIAN LABS?" the TARDIS responded.

"Ah, good point," said Lily. "And yet you realize it could be both."

"THERE IS A NOTE." The screen changed back and Lily now saw the piece of cloth the cat creature was carrying. Wavering only a moment longer, she crossed to the door and opened it, permitting the cat to come in.

The P'ra'arau glided in through the door and dropped the cloth on the floor at Lily's feet. "_Prrrow?_" she said amiably, then leapt across the room to a cushioned chair where she curled herself up and began to wash.

Lily, startled, gaped after the feline visitor for a moment, then closed the door and took up the cloth. The note was a little difficult to read, but Lily finally made out the words: "Please give sanctuary to this specimen the Ghex have tortured. She wants to go home." And below that, a smudged signature which Lily found impossible to decipher.

How odd, thought Lily, frowning at the cloth. But who could have written this? The handwriting looked like neither Artie's nor Jim's. Mr Loveless, perhaps?

A moment later another chime rang through the console room and Lily hurried to the monitor to have a new look. Oh! There were more creatures out there. More of the mysterious note-writer's doing? She strode back to the door to let them all in.


	25. Reversal

**Reversal**

Miguelito at length reached out to the control panel and pressed a final set of switches, unlocking the cages he, Voltaire, and Antoinette had taken refuge within. "I think it's safe now," he said. The three of them hurried to the door of the aviary, dodging around the remnants of Ghex that none of them really wanted to get a better look at. They arrived at the door and peeked out.

It was even worse out here; not a single living guard met their sight. Averting their eyes, they set out down the nearest corridor, Miguelito in the lead.

And now, to their horror, nearly two dozens guards swept out of hiding and surrounded them. Voltaire snatched up Miguelito to flee, but there was nowhere to go.

_/Replicant Prime!/_ one of the guards announced. _/You are under…!/_

"Oh, yes yes yes! I am Replicant Prime and I am under arrest!" said Miguelito crossly. "What a limited vocabulary you have, all of you! Now, where did you come from, and what became of my birds?"

_/We are all that is left of the guards,/_ came the reply. _/As for your birds, we opened a door to the outside and all the birds flew away to freedom./_

_/Or freedom until we collect them again,/_ added another.

_/But first, we will collect you!/_ Their colors flickering freely, the guards pressed in toward the trio.

"Not so fast!" cried Miguelito, pulling something out of his pocket and holding it up. "If you endanger any one of us, you will all die!"

Within the lab the three men were listening. They had opened the door again once the danger of the birds had passed and now Jim turned to Artie and said, "We ought to help them."

"Right," said Artie. "How do you want to do this?"

But Dr Loveless flapped his hands at them and ordered, "Shush! I'm talking! I, I mean, my original is talking! I want to hear what he has to say!"

Jim looked at him strangely. "He's just trying to bluff them."

"Yes, yes, I know that. But if he's going for the bluff I think he has in mind, I just might be able to help them!"

"Ah?" whispered Artie. And they fell silent, continuing to listen.

_/It is not possible for the three of you to kill all of us,/_ said a guard.

"Ah, but I didn't say the three of us would kill you," said Miguelito. "I myself, I alone, will kill you all, and the only thing you can do to avoid it is to back off and allow us to go free!" He held the strange item in his hand up, turning it this way and that, shaking it at them threateningly.

"What's that in his hand?" said Jim.

"Hmm? Well, that's strange! It looks like… a jammy dodger?" said Artie. "Well, I suppose he could have gotten it from one of the storage cabinets on the TA…" Hastily shutting his mouth before he could say the word TARDIS in front of Dr Loveless, he redirected the conversation suddenly by pointing at the dead Ghexian scientist still floating in midair in its bubble. "What happened to him?" he asked.

"What?" said the little doctor, distracted. "Oh, it. I used a maguffin to reverse the polarity on its shock generator. Instead of the electricity striking me, it hit the Ghex and killed it. Could we possibly have some silence now?"

Jim and Artie exchanged glances. "What became of that maguffin?" asked Jim.

"Oh, it's right here," said Dr Loveless, pulling it from his pocket. "But if you're thinking of using it against all those Ghex, it's quite impossible. Only the closest of them could conceivably be within range."

"May I see it?" asked Jim.

Frowning, the little doctor handed it over. "Don't you dare turn it on," he warned. "You might alert them to our presence!"

"What's he saying now?" asked Artie suddenly, pointing out the door. And as Dr Loveless turned to listen to his other haranguing the guards, Artie accepted the maguffin from Jim's hand, then retreated to the far side of the lab and used the sonic screwdriver on the strange device.

"Hush!" Dr Loveless commanded, wincing at the shrill noise, fighting to ignore it so he could hear what he wanted to listen to.

Out in the corridor, the guards were tightening their circle around the three fugitives. _/Come quietly, Replicant Prime. We have no wish to kill you. Our orders are to take you alive./_

_/But those orders do not extend to your companions,/_ said another guard.

"Not even if we are replicants too?" asked Antoinette, standing up tall and straight at Miguelito's side.

"Don't tell them that!" he hissed to her. "You have no idea what they will do to you as a non-Ghexian replicants!"

"I don't care!" she replied. "My place is by Dr Loveless!"

"Mine also!" said Voltaire.

Within the lab, the little doctor smiled. "My loyal friends…" he said softly.

Suddenly Artie was putting something into his hand. "Try it now," he said.

"What?" Dr Loveless looked down at the maguffin Mr Gordon had just returned to him. He thumbed a button on it, then gaped. "What did you do?" he demanded.

"Increased the range," said Artie easily.

"Will it reverse the polarity on all the guard's shock generators now?" asked Jim.

The doctor nodded. "Yes. Yes, I believe it will."

"Then do it," said Jim.

"And quickly," added Artie.

Nodding again, Dr Loveless calibrated the maguffin, then pointed it through the door and turned it on.

…

This was it, Miguelito thought to himself. This was how he would die. His one consolation was that he had led the guards away from his clone. Replicant Prime was still free and out of the clutches of the Ghexian scientists. He, Miguelito, had done what he could to rescue his home planet which he barely remembered from subjugation by the Ghex. And so, standing tall in the face of the inevitable, he stuck the jammy dodger into his mouth and took a bite.

_/It was a bluff!/_ called out a guard. _/Take them!/_ And the air was filled with the crackle of electricity as all the remaining guards turned on their shock generators.

Oh, it was a shock, all right. The electricity coursed within each guard's bubble, cooking the Ghex in their own juices. Their screams of horror crescendoed, then fell silent. For a very long moment, all was still. Then…

"How did you do that, Dr Loveless?" said Voltaire. "I thought that was a cookie!"

"_He _didn't; I did!" came a voice of triumph from a nearby lab, and Dr Loveless stepped forth, flanked by West and Gordon.

Antoinette threw a hand over her mouth, stunned. "Why… Why, there really are two of you!" she cried. She ran to the little doctor, throwing herself to her knees before him and catching him into a hug.

"Yes, yes, yes," he said impatiently. "I have missed you as well. And you, Voltaire! And now…"

"Now what?"

Everyone turned to look at the last speaker, Jim West.

"Exactly," Artie chimed in. "Now what? The guards are all dead. Only the scientists are left, and we locked most of them up in their labs while we liberated the specimens."

"Normally at this point we would arrest you," said Jim, "but as we don't exactly have jurisdiction here…"

"Not to mention the fact that, amazingly enough, I don't believe you've actually committed any crimes…" put in Artie.

"Or not today, at least," said Jim. "So what do you have in mind to do now, Doctor? Other than go home, that is?"

Dr Loveless turned a sardonic smile toward the agents. "Ah, yes, of course, going home. Precisely what I had in mind." He frowned suddenly. "But how are we to go home again? And for that matter, just how did you gentlemen follow me here to Ghexia in the first place?"

**End of Part Two**


	26. Guests

**Part Three**

**Guests**

"I don't like this," Artie said softly to Jim.

"Neither do I," Jim replied, "but I don't know of a convenient lie that Loveless wouldn't see right through, do you?"

Artie shook his head and glanced back at the entourage following them to the TARDIS. Voltaire, Antoinette, and Mr Loveless had all seen it already, but Dr Loveless' only trip in it had taking place while he was unconscious. Artie really did not relish the little wizard getting a look at his time machine, since not only would that likely lead to the revelation that Artie wasn't human, but it also might well result in Loveless bending his malevolent brilliance to the task of creating a TARDIS of his own, and Heaven help the universe if that happened!

"Where did all these creatures come from?" asked Miguelito, waving a hand at a multitude of beings of all descriptions they were passing. The creatures were milling about aimlessly now that the guards were no more.

"Didn't we mention that?" said Artie.

"These are the specimens we released earlier," said Jim.

"Although I don't really recall letting quite _this _many out…" Artie muttered.

"And what will become of them?" Miguelito persisted.

"Well…" said Artie, looking at Jim.

"We were going to take you home…" said Jim, returning the glance.

"…so, yeah, I suppose we could take them home as well," Artie concluded, then frowned and turned to Dr Loveless. "Something funny?"

The little man was wheezing with laughter. "You're… you're going to take all these creatures home? All of them? Really? Have you any idea how many there are?"

Jim glanced about. "Well, at a rough estimate, I'd say there were, oh…"

"Lots," Artie finished for him. "Why?"

"And you really expect to have enough room to carry them all?" Dr Loveless sneered.

Artie clamped his mouth shut on the answer of Yes he was about to give. In fact, there would be plenty of room and then some in the TARDIS. He just didn't want to say so yet, not to the evil genius accompanying them, not until he absolutely had to.

"Well," said Loveless smugly, "I shall leave to two of you to your gargantuan task of loading your latter-day Noah's Ark, and in the meantime, Voltaire, Antoinette…" And he turned back, his loyal minions following him.

"Wait a minute," said Jim. "Where are you going?"

"Oh, as you gentlemen will be taxed to the limit to provide whatever transport you can for all these myriad creatures, I shall refrain from being an additional burden on you. I have in mind to use this," and he pulled out the maguffin, "to cobble together several of the Ghexian bubbles into one large one for the use of myself and my friends. Ah, and Mr Loveless, would you care to help build it? I find I like the way you think!"

Miguelito stood for a moment staring at his replicant, a well of joy springing up inside him at the thought of conversing with a mind such as the little doctor's. "Ah…" A smile playing over his face, he turned to West and Gordon and said, "If you don't mind, gentlemen, I, ah… I would love to have the opportunity to spend some time with my other. But do reserve me a spot on your, er, Ark, as I do plan to leave with you."

Jim and Artie exchanged looks askance. "If you think that's wise, Mr Loveless," said Jim.

"I shan't be long," he assured the agents. "Cheerie-bye then!" And he followed the three replicants and was gone.

"I'm not sure about that," Artie muttered to Jim.

"I'm not either," said Jim. "I don't think our Mr Loveless quite comprehends just how evil a twin he has." He stood for a moment, hands perched on his hips, then added, "Well, let's start rounding up these poor creatures and take them to the TARDIS."

"Right, Jim," said Artie. Then he chuckled. "Oh, what a surprise we'll be bringing home for Lily, eh?"

…

A chime sounded anew and Lily hurried to open the door. "And what have we now?" she began, then gasped, "Artemus! Jim!"

Grinning broadly, Artie swept his wife into a hug, then gestured expansively at the creatures with them, saying, "Honey, I'm home! And I hope you don't mind that I've invited a few guests for dinner!" His eyes twinkled merrily.

"Oh, my!" she said. "Well, come along in. Please wipe your feet, everyone, and then you can all join the others."

"Others?" Jim and Artie exchanged a glance as they entered the TARDIS.

Others indeed! The console room was crowded with beings of all kinds, and Artie thought that perhaps the room was somewhat larger than usual. As he stood there holding the door open, the refugees he and Jim had rounded up poured inside around them.

"Where did all these come from?" asked Artie, indicating the group already in the TARDIS.

"You've been letting them in?" said Jim. "Opening the door and letting in strangers?"

"Well, yes. I got this note…" Lily picked up the cloth from the console and passed it to the men.

They took turns studying it, especially the illegible signature. "Who wrote this?" said Artie at last, but his wife only shook her head.

"I… I didn't think the handwriting belonged to either of you," she said, "but Rosalind insisted I let the cat girl in, and well, it just grew from there!"

"Cat girl?" said Jim, while Artie, his eyes bulging, said, "_Rosalind?_"

"Why yes," said Lily. She pointed to the P'ra'arau, still curled up and napping in the cushioned chair she had long since staked out as her own. "And Rosalind and I have been having a lovely chat using the keyboard and monitor, all about our favorite subject, darling - you!" She patted her husband's cheek, winked, then moved off to help the newest guests settle in.

Jim leaned toward Artie. "I wouldn't have sent that wild cat girl here; she's too unpredictable. I wonder who did?"

"Yes, and I've been dreading Lily finding out about Rosalind," Artie replied.

"Oh, they seem to be getting along very well," said Jim.

"Yeah, Jim, that's exactly what I've been dreading!"

…

"Where might we find enough transport bubbles to make one large one?" Dr Loveless asked Mr Loveless.

"Hmm. It will certainly need to be a very large one indeed…" Miguelito gave it some thought. "Ah! The guards have a, well, I suppose one might call it a bunk room. Their quarters, you know. Perhaps there are extra bubbles there." And he led the way.

Soon, after raiding the bunk room and confiscating all the bubbles tethered outside the fast nutrients joint, the Lovelesses and minions repaired to the aviary with its vast floor space to begin the task of constructing the large transport. Dr Loveless bestowed the maguffin upon his original, then gathered Voltaire and Antoinette and headed for the door.

"Where are you going?" called Miguelito.

"Oh, we're, ah, we're going to see if there are more specimens to be set free, to fill up Mr West and Mr Gordon's ark. We shan't be long."

Miguelito nodded and went back to his work of happy manufacture. The others went outside and closed the door.

"All right," said Dr Loveless, "come with me. I want to find chemicals and containers, lots of them!"

"What for, Dr Loveless?" asked Voltaire.

"Because I intend to devise bombs, dozens and dozens of bombs, to plant all throughout these labs and blow the whole place to Kingdom Come!"

Antoinette clapped her hands in delight, while Voltaire frowned. "But what about the specimens?"

"What… _what _specimens?" Dr Loveless demanded.

"The ones you told the other you we were going to set free and send to Mr West and…"

"Oh, those!" The little wizard shot a look at his large minion, then sniffed. "Oh, very well. You may go off and continue liberating the captives. I'm sure Mr West and Mr Gordon will be exceedingly grateful!" And as Voltaire, a wide grin beaming on his big face, hurried off to empty the labs, Antoinette helped her dear Dr Loveless to collect all the materials he needed to blast the labs to bits.

…

"Do you suppose we've found everyone?" said Jim.

"I have no idea. How many specimens could the Ghex have taken?" said Artie.

"Well," said Jim, "we know there were the ones outside under the open sky."

"Hmm… that's true. We should go get them as well." He moved to the console to work out the settings to return to the great outdoors.

"No, wait, Artie. If we move the TARDIS, Mr Loveless may arrive back here to accompany us home and be disappointed if we aren't here. I'll go find a way outside and see about the creatures out there."

"All right. And I'll head out and look for any stragglers within the labs. Lily?"

"Yes, dear?"

He gave her a kiss. "Hold down the fort. We'll be back soon."

…

Miguelito worked away happily on the transport bubble, gradually joining one to another, increasing the oxygenation capacity, and just incidentally removing every single one of the shock generators. He hated those things!

He was so engrossed in his labor that he didn't even notice when his replicant and Antoinette returned. They set up a small lab in one corner of the aviary and set about mixing and filling the bombs.

…

A chime in the console room alerted the multiformed occupants to yet another visitor at the door. Lily went to answer it, expecting her husband or his partner. "Oh, my!" she said as she saw who had come to call.

Voltaire was framed in the doorway. "I brought you some more creatures to take home," he said, his hat held in his hand.

"Why…" Lily swallowed and found her composure. "Why, thank you, Voltaire. How very helpful of you. I'm sure they are all so grateful and excited to be returning home."

He nodded, then pivoted with a swirl of his cape and set out to find more.

…

Jim found his way outside, then decided the easiest way to do this would be to gather all the creatures together into one enclosure. That way, once they had Mr Loveless aboard, they could move the TARDIS out here and load everyone inside as quickly as possible.

The fun part, he knew, would be convincing these disparate beings to cooperate and get into that single enclosure together. Well, no time to waste…

Artie, meanwhile, wandered the corridors opening lab after lab and giving the creatures he found mental directions to the TARDIS. He found himself increasingly depending on his sonic screwdriver to disable the scientists' shock generators as well as to lock the Ghex inside their labs. Curiously enough though, while some areas were still occupied and in need of being liberated, other areas had obviously already been cleared, and he was sure these were not areas he and Jim had been through earlier. Who else was out here rescuing the victims of the Ghex?


	27. Bombs

**Bombs**

"Excuse me, Mr Loveless."

Miguelito looked up to see the still-disconcerting spectacle of his own face looking back at him. "Oh, yes, Dr Loveless?"

"I hate to disturb your work - you're doing such a marvelous job! - but if may I borrow the maguffin for a few minutes?"

"Oh! Oh, certainly!" Miguelito handed it over, then stood up and stretched. He watched his double cross to the far corner of the aviary and looked on in curiosity as the little doctor used the wonderful device on… on what? Miguelito frowned, trying to puzzle out just what Dr Loveless and Antoinette were up to over there. He could hear the pair singing together as they worked. That, at least, brought a smile to his face, for the couple produced such elegant harmonies together! But what were they _doing? _It seemed to involve, ah… some rather pungent chemicals, for he could smell them, as well as a number of small containers, for he could see them. And they were pouring the chemicals into the containers, after which Dr Loveless used the maguffin on them - Miguelito presumed that was to seal the containers. But what were they _for?_

And then it dawned on him what the little doctor was up to. All the color draining from his face, Miguelito began to sidle toward the door. He needed to warn Mr West and Mr Gordon quickly, for Dr Loveless was making bombs!

He barely got three steps toward the door when Dr Loveless called out to him, "You may have the maguffin back now, Mr Loveless!"

"Oh. Oh, thank you, Dr Loveless," said Miguelito. He received the amazing device back into his hand, and with his replicant watching over him, he had no recourse but to return to work on the transport bubble.

…

Not-Lily continued with her self-appointed task of releasing the prisoners of the Ghex. She had learned that what worked best was to trigger the door to open, then hide. Its scientific curiosity piqued, the Ghexian experimenter would naturally come to the door. Not-Lily would then use a large wooden pole she'd found to swing at the scientist with all her might, sending it flying back into its lab to crash against the far wall, generally knocking the Ghex out, and occasionally bursting its bubble in the process. And if Ghex died in the course of her rescue efforts, well, Not-Lily found that she really didn't much care. Her compassion was reserved solely for the others like the original Lily, the beings from whom the Ghex had so callously stolen their lives.

She finished with a section of corridor, planted the directions to the TARDIS into this new group's heads, then turned the corner and moved on. And as those prisoners hurried off as well, heading for the place of promised refuge, another figure came around a different corner, then paused to take in all the opened doors here.

"Strange," Artie muttered softly to himself. "This corridor has been cleared as well. Who is doing this? It can't be Jim, because he's outside." He stepped into a lab at random and regarded the Ghex, collapsed on the floor. "I suppose I should thank whoever is doing this. Hmm. In fact, I _would _thank whoever is doing this, if I could only catch them at it!"

There was no one left to liberate in these labs, so Artie moved on.

And Not-Lily, having finished with the little cul-de-sac of labs around the corner, led the latest group down this empty hall, pointed them in the right direction to reach the TARDIS, then headed off down another corridor.

…

"Now, my dear," said Dr Loveless, having confiscated yet another transport bubble for her use, "you just climb inside…"

Antoinette squirmed herself into the bubble and sat in it cross-legged. She smoothed her skirts around herself, then smiled through the clear walls at her beloved and held up her hands.

"Careful," he cautioned as he wrapped the bombs in protective cloth to prevent them from clinking together and breaking. Gently he handed them to her one after another. "Oh, do be careful not to drop these!"

"Yes, Miguelito," she replied as she delicately laid the little bombs down all around her legs, lap, and feet.

"Now remember, these are a special formulation that will explode under water and will not be affected by the liquid environment down there. And remember the sorts of structures I said to plant them by!"

"I remember, Miguelito," she assured the little doctor.

He passed her the last of the underwater bombs. "There," he said in satisfaction. "As for the rest, the ones we concocted to detonate in the open air, those I shall have Voltaire place once he returns. Off you go then, Antoinette my sweet!" Dr Loveless closed up the hatch on the transport bubble, then playfully reached out and tapped the skin of the bubble right in front of the tip of her nose. "Bon voyage," he said to her, then led her to a small side door he had discovered in the aviary. He opened the door for her and shooed her out.

Nearer the main door, Dr Loveless' original continued to slave away over the reconstruction of the transport bubble. He could feel it in his bones that time was running out, and he only hoped he could find some way to elude his evil twin and go warn Mr West and Mr Gordon!

…

Jim arrived back in the labs and, spotting Artie a short distance away down a corridor, went to him. They quickly caught each other up on what each had accomplished, then continued on finding the remaining captives and liberating them.

…

Voltaire had just finished escorting another group of creatures to the TARDIS when he ran into Antoinette. "Why are you in that bubble?" he asked her.

"Because Miguelito wants me to be in this bubble!" she replied tartly. "Now do hurry back to him; he has a new job for you." And as the giant rushed off to the aviary, the brunette maneuvered her bubble into an elevator tube to descend into the waters below.

…

"Here I am, Dr Loveless!" called Voltaire as he entered the aviary.

"Ah, it's about time, Voltaire! What kept you?" Dr Loveless responded. "But never mind that. Come here, I want you to do something for me." Waving the giant to the table where the rest of the bombs awaited, the little wizard whispered his plans to his big minion.

Still working on the huge transport bubble, Miguelito tried to listen in on Dr Loveless' instructions to Voltaire but to no avail. Not that he really needed to hear them, he was sure. Antoinette had taken away half of the bombs, and now Voltaire would carry off the rest. And he, Miguelito, was stuck here as a slave to his own replicant, unable to warn his friends. He ground his teeth in frustration as he continued to assimilate all the little bubbles into one big one.

…

"Did you hear something, Jim?"

Both men paused and listened, then Jim shook his head. "What did it sound like?"

"Like… well, something like a slugger hitting a home run, really."

"That's quite an imagination you've got there, Artie," said Jim. "Come on. I think we've looked everywhere."

"Well, everywhere up here in the air, yes," said Artie, following Jim. "What do you think: should we rig up some liquid rooms in the TARDIS to get the specimens from the lower levels as well?"

"That's not a bad idea, but it would take a good bit of time, wouldn't it?"

For answer, Artie rolled his eyes.

"Then we'll take care of this load now and come back later for the others."

"Ok, Jim. Sounds good to me."

Around a corner, Not-Lily, having just disposed of yet another Ghex, could have sworn she heard voices. But by the time she came out to have a look, there was no one in sight or hearing anymore.

…

Antoinette slipped out of the tube on the lowest level and set out to deposit her bombs. She certainly hoped the budding mechanism Dr Loveless had demonstrated to her worked properly! Unwrapping the first bomb, she placed it against the wall of her bubble, then activated the control and watched with pleasure as the wall bulged outward, enclosing the bomb. As she took her hand away, the wall sealed off and the bomb went bobbing away.

Now, she thought as she moved on, as long as she had enough wall on this bubble to dispose of all the bombs!

…

A few stragglers joined up with Jim and Artie as they headed back to the TARDIS. Glancing back, both men wondered just where they could be coming from. "I thought there weren't any more labs to empty," said Artie.

"Yes…" said Jim slowly. He looked back and frowned.

They soon reached the TARDIS and Lily let them in. "You'll never guess what's been happening!" she blurted out.

"What?"

"Of all people, Voltaire has been leading new refugees here to the TARDIS! Can you even imagine that?"

"He, uh… he has?" said Artie, casting a worried glance Jim's way.

"And has Mr Loveless returned yet?" Jim asked.

Lily shook her head. "No. I'm beginning to wonder what's keeping him."

A hard look on his face, Jim said, "So am I. Or more specifically, who is keeping him."

"Oh, you don't think Dr Loveless would…!" Lily exclaimed, only to have her husband interrupt with, "What, take someone captive who looks just like him? I wouldn't put it past him!"

"Me neither," said Jim. "I'll go look for Mr Loveless."

"Right. I'll come with you."

"No, wait, Artie." Jim pulled him aside and had a brief and hushed conversation with him out of Lily's hearing.

Artie nodded. "Right, Jim. See you soon then." He gave his best friend a pat on the arm and then headed into the TARDIS while Jim hurried off to find the real Miguelito Loveless.

"What was that all about?" asked Lily as she followed her husband inside and closed the door.

"Hmm? Oh, Jim just wanted me to go ahead and get the TARDIS ready to take off as soon as he and Mr Loveless return, that's all." He smiled at his wife winningly, hoping she would not notice that the controls on the console that he was resetting were not actually those for flight. Instead, he was following Jim's directions to have the TARDIS do a full-scale scan to be sure that none of the refugees she had taken on board were carrying, for example, a bomb or two as a parting gift courtesy of Dr Loveless by way of Voltaire.

…

Antoinette dodged into a lab to wait for a group of Ghex to pass by. The events of upstairs did not seem to have filtered down to the lowest level, and she hoped it would remain that way. Peeping out again cautiously, she spotted the next structure to plant a bomb by, floated over to it, and began the budding process anew.

…

Voltaire carried his bombs very gingerly. If there was one aspect of working for Dr Loveless that had always made him nervous, it was how often he wound up carrying things that could kill him in an instant. Of course, he reminded himself, if he were to drop a bomb and blow himself up, Dr Loveless would replicate him all over again.

If he could find enough bits to work from, that is.

Voltaire carried his bombs even more gingerly and began setting them out, one by one.


	28. Souvenir

**Souvenir**

Not-Lily went prowling through the labs now, checking and rechecking, making sure no one - or at least, no one who wasn't a Ghex, that is - was being left behind. At last, satisfied, she sat down on an examination table and began to think. What was she going to do now?

Well, that was a good question, wasn't it? She didn't belong anywhere. She had been birthed by Ghex science less than twenty-four hours previously and dumped off on Earth to replace Lily Gordon, but she wasn't Lily Gordon. She had no place on Earth where she belonged. Certainly Artemus Gordon had made that clear.

Well, he had at first. He had seemed to be warming towards her, she thought, especially at the end. Of course, at that point he had thought at first that she was his own Lily. How devastated he had looked, and how glad she had been to be able to prove to him that she wasn't his beloved wife!

But if she didn't belong with the Gordons, where could she belong? Not here on Ghexia by any means! She hated the Ghex with a passion, and considered them to be good only for batting practice.

Then where? Did she dare to go back to the TARDIS and ask to be given refuge there like all the prisoners she'd set free? What would Artie and Lily do when they saw her again, back from the dead? What, for that matter, would Jim do? He was a kind man, she was sure. He had calmed Artie down and made him see Not-Lily for a person, not just a replicant. Maybe… maybe Jim would like for her to come back to Earth, for… for his sake. Maybe…

Oh, now she sounded like a love-sick idiot! she told herself. But whatever she did decide to do, she was not going to just sit here and either mope or daydream. She slid herself off the bed and stepped back out into the corridor without even looking around.

…

Antoinette was out of bombs at last and headed for an ascending tube. And that's when someone spotted her. _/Hey! You are not a Ghex! You have air in that bubble. What are you doing down here? Are you with Replicant Prime? Guards! Guards!/_

She jumped into the tube and willed it to move faster, faster, faster!

…

Jim had found no one as he wandered through the labs, looking for wherever Dr Loveless had set up shop. It would have to be a pretty large area if he planned to build a transport bubble big enough to accommodate himself, Antoinette, and Voltaire - especially Voltaire. Where in these labs had Jim seen any place that was big enough for such a project?

And then he smiled. Of course! Where else would Loveless have gone? Jim got his bearings, then set out jogging toward the aviary.

…

Miguelito was beginning to despair of ever escaping from Dr Loveless. Once both minions had left on their mysterious errands - not so very mysterious, Miguelito feared, for all the little containers the doctor had filled had vanished - the little wizard had come over to help finish the transport bubble. And now it was almost complete, only a few more additions to make, only a few more seams to seal tightly against any sort of leakage. Miguelito toiled on side by side with his other, watching for his chance to make a break for it.

…

Antoinette reached the top of the elevator tube and spilled from both tube and bubble. Jumping to her feet, she took off running. Guards from below were right on her trail; she had to warn her beloved doctor!

…

Voltaire charged into the side door of the aviary. "Dr Loveless!" he cried out. "Look what I've found!"

"Oh, what is it now, some sort of three-headed puppy?" Loveless complained as he scrambled to his feet, the maguffin firmly in his grasp as he strode over to where his minion was holding something cradled in his arms. Seeing what that something was, however, caused an immediate change in the little doctor's tune. "Excellent, Voltaire!" he said. "Oh, this has simply marvelous potential! It isn't dead, is it?"

"No, Dr Loveless! I was very careful."

"Hmm. Not that it matters, for if it's dead, I shall simply replicate it! But do take it and put it into the transport bubble. We're nearly ready and as soon as Antoinette arrives…" He led the way back to the transport bubble. "No!"

Voltaire was right behind him. "What's wrong, Dr Loveless ?" he asked, for the little doctor was tearing at his hair.

"What's wrong? Why, isn't it obvious? Use your eyes and look!"

Puzzled, Voltaire did as he was told and looked. He saw Dr Loveless, of course. He also saw the huge transport bubble in the middle of the floor, the one that the other Loveless had been working on, but he saw nothing else and said so.

"Nothing else! Precisely! Don't you comprehend? The other Loveless, the original of me, is gone! Run off! He must have taken advantage of the distraction you provided when you were showing me your prize. He has escaped!"

"I'm sorry, Dr Loveless," the giant said contritely.

"Oh, never mind all that. Go after him! Bring Mr Loveless back to me at once!"

"Yes, Dr Loveless!" And quickly stowing his burden inside the bubble, Voltaire took off charging out the door, with Dr Loveless scrambling along behind him.

…

Jim was nearly to the aviary when a small body came hurtling out the door, slamming it shut behind him. Mr Loveless!

Spying Mr West, the little man cried out, "Oh, hurry! Dr Loveless has been making bombs and I think he sent Antoinette and Voltaire out to plant them all throughout the labs!"

"How many bombs?" asked Jim, Having accomplished what he'd set out to do, Jim turned around to charge back to the TARDIS, catching the smaller man's hand to help him along.

"Dozens! If I know how he thinks - and I'm afraid I didn't at first, but I believe I do now - he's made enough bombs to destroy this whole complex!"

"Great," said Jim. He considered swinging the little man up into his arms for the run back to the TARDIS., but before Jim could act on the thought, Voltaire came charging out the aviary door, roaring like a locomotive, hot on Mr Loveless' trail.

Jim instantly came to a halt and pivoted to face the giant. "You go on to back the TARDIS, Mr Loveless," he said. "Get to safety. And tell Artie everything you know of Dr Loveless' plans."

"What?" Miguelito stopped too. "But what about you?"

"Don't worry about me. You just go."

"But what are you going to do?"

"What do you think I'm going to do?" Nodding toward the onrushing giant, Jim said, "I'm going to try to stop a moving train."

…

Clutching her skirts to keep from tripping on them, Antoinette raced through the corridors, determined to reach the aviary well before the guards on her trail. She had to warn Dr Loveless!

And then, as she ran, she spotted something out of the corner of her eye, something very familiar. Ah, Voltaire had been out placing his bombs as well! Skidding to a halt, she whirled and scurried back to the bomb she'd seen and snatched it up.

_/Halt!/_ the guards called after her as she took off running again, speeding around the nearest corner. She now pressed herself up against the wall, waiting for the guards to arrive.

_/Halt! You are under arrest. Resistance is futile!/_ They were coming closer.

Abruptly Antoinette sprang from behind the corner and lobbed the bomb with all her might at the wall just behind the guards, then dove back into the crossing corridor and out of blast range.

_Foom!_

When the fire died down, Antoinette peeked out. None of the guards were left, and very little of the corridor as well. With a smile of delight, she clapped her hands, then ran off to give Dr Loveless her much better news.

…

Artie breathed a little easier; Rosalind had found no bombs nor anything else out of the ordinary - remarkable, considering how very out of the ordinary most of their passengers were. Now that he'd dealt with that possible threat, he began his calculations for the brief jump back to the surface of the planet to pick up Jim's refugees. He was just finishing up resetting everything when yet another chime sounded.

"What's that about, Rosalind?" he asked softly even as he switched the monitor to give him a view of the outside. Lily was already crossing to the door. And just as he recognized who was running up to the door, she was opening it.

Their newest guest didn't even break stride as he bolted into the room. Gasping as if he'd left his lungs far behind him, Miguelito collapsed into one of the chairs of the parlor area, gulping in air as quickly as possible.

"Mr Loveless!" cried Lily as she closed the door behind him.

"Are you all right?" Artie asked him. "And where's Jim?"

"He…" Still gasping, Miguelito pointed back at the door. "He's at the aviary, or just outside it. Voltaire… Voltaire was after us. Mr West sent me on… to let you know that… that Dr Loveless… is making bombs… I think he plans… plans to blow up this building…"

"The TARDIS?" Lily exclaimed.

"No, he doesn't know about the TARDIS, Lily," said Artie. And to Mr Loveless he said, "You mean the labs? He's going to blow up the labs?"

Miguelito nodded. "He made… dozens of bombs…"

"Wonderful," growled Artie. He looked around the room as he gave his nose a thump with his finger, thinking. "All right, as far as I know, we have everyone in here that we could rescue. All that's left is to pick up Jim from in here, and then get the beings that are up on the surface. Lily," he caught her hand in his, "you take care of Mr Loveless. He needs to rest, but he should be all right quickly."

"What are you going to do?"

"Go get Jim, of course."

"But, Artie…!"

"Hey, it's what I do best, hmm?" He gave her a crooked grin. "I - make that, _we_ - will be back as soon as possible. Try to get everyone sitting down for when we launch. Oh, and just don't let anyone touch that lever on the console, ok, honey?"

She nodded and gave his hand a squeeze. He smiled back and winked, then hurried out the door to go help Jim.


	29. Fight

**Fight**

Voltaire charged after little Mr Loveless, only to find that James West was standing in his way. His eyes lighting up with wicked pleasure, the giant rushed on the agent instead, intent on crushing him.

Jim stood still, waiting. A split-second before Voltaire reached him, Jim slipped to one side, throwing an elbow into the giant's gut.

"Oof!" Voltaire slung out an arm to cuff at his much smaller opponent. Jim ducked under the blow. Darting behind Voltaire, he gave the big man a boot to the rear.

The giant pivoted and grabbed at Jim's head, squeezing him, trying so it seemed to twist the head right off the man's shoulders.

Jim grasped at the hands, pulling at them, doing his best to loosen the furious grip. When that didn't work, he punched the giant repeatedly in the stomach.

That worked. Voltaire swayed backwards, his hands flailing, trying desperately not to lose his balance. And Jim was right there with a kick to the big man's chest, sending him sprawling to the floor.

"Oh! Get up, Voltaire, get up! Go after him!" Dr Loveless cried out fiercely, throwing his arms about as if that would make his giant fight better.

And then the concussion of a bomb blast going off sent shockwaves through the hallways, dropping dust all over the combatants and the little wizard as well.

Loveless shrieked and covered his head. "No! No no no! It's too soon! And I didn't set off the detonator!" He ran a few steps back toward the aviary, then wheeled again. "Voltaire! The bombs are going off prematurely! We have to get out of here!"

"Miguelito!" Antoinette ran up panting. "Oh, Miguelito, some of the guards from the lowest level saw me and followed me!"

His face twisting in dismay, Dr Loveless cried out again, "No no no!"

"No, wait! Listen to me, Miguelito! The guards followed me up through the tube, but then I used one of the bombs Voltaire set out and blew them up!" She beamed at him joyfully.

"You?" His face cleared and he danced a little jig of glee. "The bomb that went off - that was you?"

"Mm-hmm!" She caught his hands and joined him in his dance.

"Oh, Antoinette, you _are _my little honey-dew, aren't you, my dear?" Happily he set off toward the aviary. "Never mind, Voltaire! The bombs aren't going off prematurely after all. Go ahead and finish off Mr West, then do join us in the transport bubble. It's time for us to depart."

Voltaire, back on his feet again, looked at his opponent and a huge grin spread across his face as he charged toward the smaller man once again, ready to knock Jim's block off.

…

Miguelito, beginning to feel more like himself and less like an empty bag under the foot of an elephant, struggled to get up. Instantly Lily was at his side, gently helping him to his feet. "How do you feel?" she asked.

He smiled at her. "A bit better now, thank you." He began wandering about the room, taking in the sights of all the fantastic creatures crowding the console room. And slowly, surreptitiously, he worked his way over to the console and began studying the controls.

Lily went about the room as well, passing out blankets and bottles of water, as well as anything else useful she could find in the storage cabinets along the wall. She smiled amiably at all the guests, even the strangest of them, such as the little two-headed fellow with only one central leg. It took a certain amount of effort to get some of the beings to understand that they were to have a seat on the floor, but once about a quarter of the room was sitting, the rest began to get the idea and follow suit.

She gave away all the blankets in her arms, then turned back to get some more. And that was when she spotted her only human guest and saw what he was doing.

"Ah… Mr Loveless!" she called, rushing to his side. "You're… you're not supposed to be doing that!"

He stopped flipping the switches and turning the dials to smile up at her. "Do you happen to know how to fly this machine, Mrs Gordon?" he asked.

She shook her head vigorously. "Oh my, no! That's Artie's department. This TARDIS is his, and I wouldn't begin to know what to do to get it to fly, much less make it - oh excuse me, I mean, _her _- make her go where I wanted her to."

"Really?" said the little man, a mischievous look on his face. "You wouldn't begin to know how to make it fly? How very curious, Mrs Gordon - because to me, making this TARDIS fly seems to be simplicity itself!" And at that moment, to Lily's horror, Mr Loveless took hold of the lever Artie had said no one was to touch and threw it. Instantly the floor tilted under foot as the TARDIS began to rise up bodily into the air.

…

Artie went charging through the empty halls of the labs heading for the aviary, patting his pockets as he went. Bombs… bombs… bombs… Just how many of his bombs had he already used since they got here? Well, if he'd run out of bombs, what else did he have…? Ah! He looked down at the item he'd just pulled from a pocket and with a big smile, he ran on to help Jim.

…

Jim was circling Voltaire, staying back out of range of the taller man's reach as much as possible, yet darting in to land a blow or a kick every so often, working to wear the giant out.

"Stand still!" Voltaire growled at him. He swung this way and that, trying to get the irritating Mr West in front of him where he could fight him like a man.

"Not a chance!" said Jim. He dodged back as the giant pivoted once again, then leapt up and delivered a hard chop to the side of Voltaire's neck.

To his surprise, the giant's hand shot out and caught him by his upper arm. Voltaire held him up, letting him dangle in midair. "I've got you now!" the big man rumbled gleefully. He drew back his fist, ready to pound Mr West.

"Jim!"

Both fighters turned at the sound of that familiar voice. Seeing Artie rushing up with something in his hand, Jim assumed it was one of the knock-out bombs Artie so often packed into glass orbs and prudently caught his breath.

But it wasn't a glass orb. Artie stopped short and sent the item flying towards them, but instead of it landing somewhere and bursting into a cloud of colorful smoke, it instead went skimming through the air, traveling high, high above and beyond Jim and Voltaire. It then made a smooth turn and started back again, whirling as it flew, heading back towards Artie - except that directly between Artie and the thing he had thrown was the giant, and the whirling projectile was now coming straight toward Voltaire's head.

With a snarl, Voltaire dropped West and reached out his hand, grabbing the little item right out of the air. His eyes narrowed as he inspected it. It was a curved piece of wood, flat on the bottom, rounded on the top, with the word BOOMERANG neatly lettered on it. As Jim rolled to get away, Voltaire turned to glare at Artie. He shook the boomerang at him and bellowed, "What, am I a dog that you come at me with sticks?"

"Oh, very good quote, Voltaire," said Artie. "But do you happen to hear anything?"

"Huh?" The giant looked at the piece of wood in his hands, then held it up close to his ear. In fact, he did hear something! It was the sound that a wind-up toy would make as it wound down. And as the ratcheting noise slowed into silence, there came a click.

A hidden lid popped open in the middle of the boomerang and from it now issued the cloud of gas Jim had expected previously. Saffron fumes spewed out into Voltaire's face, sending him reeling. In a matter of only moments, with an impact that shook all the walls in the area, the giant hit the floor.

"No!" screamed Dr Loveless. He started to run toward his minion, then checked himself to wait for the gas to disperse.

In the meantime, Artie fired off a jaunty salute toward the little wizard, then gave his partner a hand up, saying, "Come on, Jim, we're ready to go." And the two men ran off to return to the TARDIS.

"Quickly, Antoinette!" said Dr Loveless. "We need to get Voltaire into the transport bubble and get out of here!"

She stared at him. "What do you mean by, 'Quickly, Antoinette'? What are you expecting me to do about this?"

"Why, pick him up, of course. If we leave quickly enough, we'll be able to catch our dearest enemies still trapped inside the labs when the bombs go off! Get Voltaire and let us be off!"

Antoinette gaped at him. "Pick up Voltaire?" she exclaimed. "You expect me to be able to lift and carry Voltaire?"

"Why yes, of course! I enhanced you, my dear; I made you stronger."

Planting her fists on her hip, she retorted, "Oh, you may have enhanced me when you replicated me, Miguelito Loveless, but you did not enhance me _that _much!" And now she folded her arms and glared at him.

He glared back at her in return. "What, you won't even try?" And when she only glared all the more, he threw his hands up in the air and growled, "Fine! Just come on and get in the transport bubble then." And he strode off ahead of her into the aviary.

"But… but, Miguelito!" Antoinette protested, hurrying after him. "You can't just leave Voltaire behind!"

"Don't tell me what I can or cannot do!" he snapped back at her. "Now do as I say and get in the bubble!"

She started to object once more, but the scowl on his face quickly quelled that. Meekly she entered the bubble, then started, staring at something on the bubble's floor. "What? How did that get here?"

"Oh, Voltaire found it," the little doctor grinned. "Marvelous, isn't it? I have such intriguing plans on the uses I shall put it to! But that's for another day. At the moment…" He pulled out the maguffin and quickly finished sealing up the last openings in the bubble. "Perfect," he declared. "And now…" He touched a control, and part of the bubble's wall began to bud off.

"Oh!" said Antoinette happily, recognizing what was happening. "The budding process! That's how you'll pick up Voltaire."

"But of course, my dear! You didn't really believe that I would leave him behind, did you? And yet you could hardly have expected _me _to be able to lift him physically." They waited while the bud floated out of the aviary door to engulf the unconscious giant. It then carried him back to the mother ship and fused itself back into the great bubble, depositing Voltaire within.

"Excellent," said Dr Loveless. He rubbed his long-fingered hands together, then began working the controls to achieve lift-off. And once the bubble and all its occupants were freely floating within the aviary, he pressed another control, and now the transport bubble faded from view as if it had never been there at all.


	30. Flight

**Flight**

"We need to get out of here and fast," said Jim as he and Artie ran through the corridors.

"Right. That was quite a blast I heard as I was coming to find you! And Mr Loveless says our favorite doctor has planted dozens of bombs throughout the labs just like that one we heard go off. However, it won't take us long to get out of here once we reach the TARDIS. I have the controls all set for us to make a quick exit as soon as we get… there…"

His voice trailed off as he and Jim looked up in astonishment. From around a corner in front of them hove into view a large and familiar box. "What?" said Artie.

"How is that flying?" said Jim. "I thought only you and I knew how to fly it."

To their amazement, the TARDIS glided toward them, then stopped and hovered about a foot off the ground. The door popped open to reveal the grinning countenance of Miguelito Loveless. "Hello, gentlemen!" he chortled. "Do come aboard!"

Jim hopped inside, then gave Artie a hand to boost him in as well. They closed the door and Artie loped across to the console, looking over the settings. "What did you do?" he demanded, his hands flying over the controls.

"Oh, simply taught myself how to fly this marvelous machine - or creature, I should say."

"But I said - specifically said! - that no one was to touch the lever!" Artie leveled a glower at the little man.

"Actually, as I recall, you said that not just anyone was to touch the lever." With a smile and a flourish of his hands, Miguelito said, "And I, my friends, am by no means 'just anyone.' "

"What I _said_," Artie countered, rechecking each setting one by one, "was 'Just don't let anyone touch the lever,' not 'Don't let just anyone touch it'! You've misplaced the word 'just' to suit yourself!" And as he continued to reset everything back to the way he'd had it previously, he appealed to his wife. "Lily, couldn't you have stopped him?"

She spread her hands. "I'm sorry, Artemus, but by the time I realized what he was going to do, he had already done it!" she said.

"Yeah, well, I'm not surprised," muttered Artie. "Trust a Loveless not to be able to keep his hands off something he's not supposed to meddle with."

"Are we ready, Artie?" Jim asked quietly.

Artie did one more visual inspection of the controls and nodded. "Yeah, I think so."

"Then let's go. We haven't any time to waste."

"Right, Jim." And now Artie pulled the lever and the familiar wheezing and groaning filled the air.

…

"But where are we, Miguelito?" asked Antoinette. "I thought we were returning to Earth."

"We are, of course, my dear. That is, very shortly we shall be," the little doctor replied.

"But that's not Earth below us, I think."

"Oh, very good! No, that is not the Earth down there," said Dr Loveless. "That is Ghexia below us, and this," he produced a small box from his pocket, "is the detonator!" He chuckled and Antoinette laughed along with him. "Well, you could hardly expect me to just leave the labs to explode without wanting to have a ringside seat to watch!" he gloated. "And now, with a press of this button, it will be 'Good-bye' to the infernal Ghex forever, and just incidentally, 'Good-bye' to that meddlesome Mr West and his great good friend Mr Gordon as well!"

Antoinette clapped her hands as Dr Loveless placed his thumb on the button.

…

With the TARDIS hovering just above the ground ready to zoom upwards as soon as it was fully loaded, Jim and Artie gave each of the creatures Jim had gathered earlier whatever help it might need to enter the ship. Lily escorted the new guests to empty spots in which to sit, while Miguelito waited at the lever, all set to get them out of there as quickly as possible. The operation was going as smoothly as could be expected when, just as the last three creatures were about to board, one of the ones that was already inside panicked and leapt out again.

"I'll get it!" said Jim and went charging after it.

Artie loaded the others, then turned to help Jim. "Come on!" he urged.

The rascally little creature zigged and zagged, outracing Jim all over the enclosure. "Come on!" Jim said, trying to calm his thoughts and project kindness toward the frightened little being. "You don't want to be here when the bombs go off."

Abruptly a strong mental image of exactly that flashed through Jim's mind, portraying the ground below them exploding outwards, obliterating all the enclosures, raining the sand back down into an enormous gaping hole in the ground.

With a yip, the little escapee leapt into Jim's arms and he carried it back to the TARDIS, handing it over to Lily, then hopping in through the door. "Where did that vision come from?" said Jim as he turned to grab Artie's hand to help him in as well.

"Oh, that was from me. Mildly telepathic, remember?" He grasped Jim's hand, ready to bound into the TARDIS as well.

…

Far above the surface of Ghexia, a thumb pressed a button to the accompaniment of maniacal laughter.

…

The noise of dozens upon dozens of explosions rumbled up from underground, then ripped out into the open air. The ground below Artie's feet lurched and he fell, dangling from Jim's hand, his weight nearly wrenching his partner out the door. Jim grabbed on to the door frame with his free hand, quickly going to his knees. "Artie! Hang on!"

"I'm hanging, Jim!" he hollered back, catching hold of Jim's arm with his other hand as well.

"Artie!" yelped Lily, her hand clutching at her throat.

Suddenly the TARDIS slipped sideways through the air, then began to rise.

"What's going on?" yelled Artie.

"I'm moving us away from the blast zone!" Miguelito called, his long fingers dancing over the controls. "All we need is for the concussion of the explosions to catch us!"

The TARDIS was now tilting at nearly a forty-five degree angle with the door side uppermost as the time machine skimmed along, streaking just ahead of the rising debris from the blast. Jim was on his stomach now, still hanging on to the door frame with one hand and Artie with the other. He pulled with all his might. "Hang on, Artie!" he groaned.

"Still hanging, Jim!" Artie replied. Keeping hold of Jim's arm with one hand, he let go with the other to make a grab at the threshold.

He missed.

For a hearts-rending moment, he dangled by one arm, his legs kicking in midair as the TARDIS rushed on ahead of the encroaching explosion. Twisting involuntarily, Artie faced the eruption for a moment, watching what he had so recently envisioned, the uprushing rubble blasting into the air, the yawning cavern opening out below. And he could feel his hand slipping…

Suddenly the TARDIS dropped and backtracked a few feet, tossing him inside. The door slammed shut on its own as Artie and Jim both went skidded across the floor, coming to a rest right at the foot of the console.

"What?" said Artie. He felt of himself, assuring himself that he was in fact whole and alive. "How did that happen?"

"That, gentlemen," said a beaming Miguelito, "is a little example of this novice pilot's skill at steering your TARDIS." With a twinkle in his eye as he smiled down on the two agents, he added, "And not too shabby a job, if I do say so myself!"

Lily, her legs weak and shaking, came and fell to the floor at Artie's side. "Oh, Artemus!" she cried, and then she began to cry in the word's other meaning as well.

As his partner continued to sit under the console comforting his wife, Jim got to his feet and offered his hand to Miguelito. "Thank you," he said as the little man accepted the handshake.

"It was my pleasure," said Miguelito. "The two of you are giving me back my life. Could I do any less than to return the favor?"

Artie now stood up and helped Lily to her feet, wrapping his arm securely around her waist. "All right!" he said, "let's get out of here and start taking these fine folks back to their own planets, shall we? And after that," and he grinned magnificently, "it'll be back to home sweet Earth!"

…

Dr Loveless chortled with glee as he and Antoinette watched the glorious explosion down below. "Beautiful!" he exclaimed. "And do you know what makes that destruction so particularly delightful, my dear Antoinette?"

She nodded. "The fact that the Ghex have been caught in it!"

"And Mr West and Mr Gordon as well," he added, gloating.

"Are you certain, Miguelito? Perhaps they got away as we did."

He snorted. "Oh, I doubt it. They didn't have a transport bubble such as we have."

"No," said Antoinette. "They had a TARDIS."

Slowly he turned to face his lovely minion. "They had a _what?_" he said, his eyes opening wide in shock.


	31. Restoration

**Restoration**

The crew of the TARDIS had quite a busy time ahead of them. It fell to Artie to interview each of the creatures one by one to determine its proper planet of origin, then pinpoint the exact spot on that planet at which to return it. Jim helped to pilot the TARDIS, as did Miguelito, while Lily often did the typing for the research into Rosalind's memory banks to pull up any pertinent information on the various planets they wound up visiting. By the time they were done, Miguelito had learned to navigate quite well.

The last creature of all, curiously enough, was the first one who had come to the TARDIS door, the P'ra'arau. She had spent most of the journey curled up on her favorite cushioned chair. Now she rose and stretched and looked about at her hosts.

"_Prrow?_" she said.

Jim took her hand. "You're home," he said. He led her to the door which Artie flung open for her.

The cat girl took a look outside, her eyes widening in recognition. She glanced rapidly at her rescuers, then gathered herself, lashed her long tail, and sprang from the TARDIS, bounding away through the tall magenta grass of her homeland and disappearing from sight.

"Well," said Lily with a happy sigh, "and that's that. Now, if you don't mind, dear, I'd like to go to my room and lie down."

"Certainly, Lil, certainly," said Artie. He gave her a kiss on the cheek, then held the interior door for her and watched her go before closing it again after her. "And that," he said, "is the lot of them."

"Not quite," said Jim.

"Ah, true, James, true." Artie amended his statement. "That's the lot, except for _you_, Mr Loveless."

"Right," said Jim. "Ready to go home?"

"Ah… well, actually… No," said the little man.

"No? Why not?"

"Well, gentlemen, I've been thinking it over, and from what I understand, the other me has pretty well destroyed my reputation, isn't that so?"

"Ah…" Artie glanced at Jim. They had to admit it that Mr Loveless was right.

"You could rehabilitate your good name, though," said Artie encouragingly.

"I suppose I could. But how long would that take? I've spent most of my life in misery, you know, and I really don't relish dealing with still more misery trying to undo the damage my replicant has done."

"Go somewhere else then," said Jim.

"Yes," said Artie enthusiastically. "You could start anew anywhere you want! Just pick a place and we'll take you there!"

"Ah, well, that's easy to say, my friends, but where? Where is the name of Dr Miguelito Quixote Loveless not known? Shall I go live in darkest Africa, or the wilds of Australia? Live in an igloo in the frozen north of Canada perhaps? Or no - I shall go to Siberia!" He spread his hands. "You see my predicament, gentlemen."

"I see you've been using Rosalind's memory banks to bone up on Earth geography!" said Artie pointedly.

"Hmm," said Jim, giving this some serious thought. "So where are we going to drop him off, Artie?" he asked, turning to his partner.

"Well, he certainly does have a point…" Artie agreed. He flicked his nose with a forefinger pensively, and suddenly he began to chuckle.

"What are you thinking of, Mr Gordon?" Miguelito asked.

"Yes, what is that Mona Lisa smile about this time, buddy?"

"Oh, it's just that…" and Artie's hands began to fly over the console, resetting various controls. "…it occurs to me that it's not a matter of _where _to drop off our friend, but _when_." He continued to flick switches, dial dials, and type random phrases. "Ah, just the ticket! In roughly eighty years from the time we were visited by the Ghex, the name of Dr Loveless will be at best a dim memory. Does that sound good to you, Miguelito?"

"Perhaps…"

Artie turned to look at him. "No? Should we do something else?"

"No, no, your plan sounds fine. But I have a little refinement to offer. You see, I have had quite enough of my replicant; I am simply done with him in every way! And I…" He stopped suddenly and began to giggle. "Why, of course! I'm done with him! That's perfect!"

"What is perfect?" asked Jim. "What do you have in mind?"

"Only this, Mr West. I believe the solution to my problem is that I shall change my name. And as I am _done _with my clone, I propose to become Miguelito D… No, even better: _Michael _Dunn!" He smiled at them both. "Gentlemen, what do you think?"

They glanced at each other. "Sounds fine to me," said Jim.

"To me as well," added Artie. "And now, Mr Dunn, where shall we take you?"

The newly-christened Dunn gave it some thought, then smiled. "Why, do you know, the one thing I truly did enjoy in this whole distressing situation regarding my evil twin were the various times I had to impersonate him."

"Oh, you liked doing that?" said Artie.

"You did a very good job of it," said Jim. "If I hadn't been standing right next to the other you, I would have been hard pressed to tell which you were."

"Marvelous! Mr West, you compliment me greatly! And so, my friends," and he smiled and bowed magnificently, "I believe that I should like to become an actor."

"As you like it," said Artie, resetting yet another control on the console. "New York City, here you come! Would you care to do the honors?"

"Thank you very much, Mr Gordon." And Mr Loveless - that is to say, Mr Dunn - pulled the lever one last time.

…

"Well!" said Artie, coming into Lily's room in the TARDIS. "We're heading home now, honey. Home, sweet home!"

"Mm. Sounds wonderful." She sat up in the bed.

He took a seat by her side. "And how are you feeling?"

"Not bad. A bit tired."

"And the little one?" He laid a hand on her tummy, peeking in on the growing consciousness of their child.

She laid her hand atop his. "Probably very happy," said Lily. "I know I'm happy to be out of that dreadful place."

"Amen to that!" He slipped an arm around her and gave her a kiss.

"Artemus…" she said after a bit.

"Yes, dear?"

"I… I feel so terrible about poor Not-Lily. I'm so sorry she died."

He patted her hand. "So am I, Lil, so am I. She was… well, she was a brave and selfless woman," he said soberly. "She must have gotten all that from her original."

Lily smiled and gave her husband a kiss. "I'm sorry she had to sacrifice herself, but I'll be eternally grateful that she saved your life."

Artie kissed her in return, then chuckled, an odd gleam in his eye.

"What?" said Lily.

"Oh… I was just thinking of what our lives might be like if she could still be here with us. You know, that wouldn't have been half bad! One Lily to take care of the cooking and cleaning, while the other takes care of the, ah, kissing and cuddling, hmm? And then whenever one of you gets tired, you can just swap off!"

With a look of indignation on her face, Lily swatted his arm. "Artemus Gordon! You… you _man_, you! Wanting your own little harem of multiple me's?"

He grinned at her. "Mm-hmm!"

"Well, it wouldn't work! You're just thinking of the bed of roses, but there would also be twice as much nagging, keep in mind!"

"Oh, I could handle that," he said confidently.

"Oh, you could, could you?"

"Of course I could, Lily. You're just not a nag, you see."

"Oh, I'm not? Well… I could learn!"

He shook his head, smiling. "No, it would never stick. Nagging's just not in your nature. You're never anything but sweet, and warm, and understanding, and kind..." He kissed her.

"Oh, Artemus…"

He kissed her some more, then said, "Now, of course, there _would _have been one little problem, Lil."

"There would? What's that?"

He chuckled. "You may not be a nag, but you do get terribly jealous, my love. Imagine, you would have been insanely jealous of yourself!"

"Oh, I would not!" she stormed at him. "I'm never jealous."

"Oh, really? Then who's Henrietta?" he asked, and did a passable imitation of a pigeon cooing.

Lily sat by his side for a moment with her mouth open. "Oh, dear," she said at last, very meekly. "I suppose you're right."

He chuckled warmly. "Well, of course I'm right! When am I ever wrong?"

"Well…" she said, a little smile crossing her face. "Would you like me to make you a list?"

Again he chuckled. "No no no," he said. "I just want to you to make me the happiest man in all the world. Oh, wait! You already did!" And his eyes twinkling - hers as well - he kissed her some more, leading to still more kisses, and after that, leading simply to more.

…

"Hey, Artie," said Jim as his partner set foot back into the console room. With a knowing smile, he added, "I was beginning to think I ought to come searching for you."

"Oh, I was just, ah, looking in on Lily."

"Looking in," Jim repeated. "Never heard it called that before."

"What?"

"Never mind, Artie. But you know, while I was in here all by my lonesome, something occurred to me."

"Yeah, Jim?" Artie went to the console and started checking over the settings, watching the reassuring sight of the time rotor moving up and down. "What's that?"

"Well, you know that you offered to take Mr Loveless a couple of generations into the future in the hopes that the tarnished name of Miguelito Quixote Loveless would have faded into obscurity."

"Right, right."

"But then, before he even set foot out of the TARDIS, he decided to change his name entirely."

"So?"

"So we didn't need to take him to the future. With his new name, who would ever connect him with Dr Loveless in the present?"

Artie paused, then began to laugh. "Oh now, I should have caught on to that myself!"

"Hey, I should have figured it out earlier too, buddy. What do you think: do you want to go get him and return him to his proper time?"

Artie gave it a bit of thought, then said, "Aw… that is one little man who has had an awful lot of interruptions in his life. He doesn't need us popping in and offering to shift him yet again. And who knows? Maybe he's met a nice girl by now."

Jim gave a small smile and crooked an eyebrow. "A pretty brunette perhaps?" he said.

"Oh, you mean a brunette who can sing and play the harpsichord? Oh yeah, that would be nice, really nice!"


	32. Gotcha!

**Gotcha! **

Later that day after they had all returned to the Wanderer, Jim came into the baggage car to settle the horses for the night. "Oh, hey, Artie. There you are. Lily sleeping?"

"Mm-hmm." Artie was in the lab area of the baggage car, studying some papers he had spread out over the table. Artie waited until Jim was done with the horses, then said, "Hey, buddy, care to take a look at this?"

"What do you have?" asked Jim. He came and leaned over Artie's shoulder.

"These are some print-outs I made from various scans I happened to run on various people during the Ghex adventure. Now, look here. This one is of Antoinette, and this one of Voltaire."

"All right…"

"And they were both replicants. This one is Dr Loveless, also a replicant, and this…" He paused over the next two. "Well, this one was of Not-Lily, and this one the fake me."

"All right. And?"

"And then these two over here are of Mr Loveless and of my own Lily, the originals." He waved at the papers, grouped together with the five replicants on one side and the two originals on the other. "Notice anything?"

Jim frowned and looked closely as Artie leaned back to give him more room.

"Hmm…" said Jim at length. "It's a very tiny difference, almost negligible, but there's just the slightest uptick here." He tapped the read-out for Dr Loveless. "It's not there on the scan of the other Loveless. But the same uptick occurs here, here, here, and here," he said, pointing at the read-outs for Voltaire, Antoinette, Not-Lily, and, well, Not-Artie, "but it's not there on your Lily's either." He looked at Artie. "Interesting, but not really of any importance, is it?"

Artie shrugged. "Naw. I just got curious, that's all. Suppose we ever ran into some of the Ghex' replicants again? We'd be able to scan them," he demonstrated by pulling out his sonic screwdriver and running a scan on Jim, "and then check the scan for that little uptick right… right, um… Uh…"

Jim looked at his partner for a long time. "Artie?"

Artie was staring at the read-out on the sonic screwdriver. Wordlessly, he turned the sonic so Jim could see the read-out as well. In particular, at a certain point in the read-out, both men could see a curious little uptick.

Their eyes met. "You, ah…" Artie blinked and swallowed hard. "You don't suppose that… that while the Ghex had you and Dr Loveless held captive…"

"What, that they replicated me? I don't think they did, but then…"

"Yeah, how would you know? But you have all your memories, don't you?"

Jim considered. "I think so."

"So you remember your childhood?"

"Yes."

"And the War?"

"Oh, yes."

"And how you and I first met?"

"Sure."

"Well, what about this: do you remember how often I pull practical jokes on you, and the fact that I made this sonic screwdriver and certainly know how to reprogram it so that the read-out would have a little false uptick in it?"

Silence.

Slowly a grin spread over Artie's face. "Gotcha!"

Slowly a grin spread over Jim's as well. "Yes, you did. You certainly did. And you know what that means, of course."

"Well, sure, it means… That is, it means… ah… Uh-oh."

Jim's eyes twinkled. "Yep, paybacks are a bear, aren't they, Artie? At least, this one's going to be." He patted his partner on the shoulder. "And you'll never know when I'll spring it on you either, buddy. Good night."

"Good, ah, good night, Jim." And as Jim shot him another grin from the doorway as he left, Artie looked down at the sonic screwdriver in his hand, the expression on his face saying plainly that he just might be wondering if the fun of pulling a practical joke on Jim was really worth the effort.

And he held on to that worried look until Jim closed the door behind him. Then he flipped to the real read-out of his scan on Jim and took a good look. Whew! The uptick wasn't there. "What a relief!" he said softly. This in fact was the real and authentic James West. Artie's fears that the Ghex might have replicated his partner were baseless. With a smile on his face and a Stephen Foster tune on his lips, Artie cleared away the printouts from the lab table and headed off to bed.

…

Elsewhere…

Dr Loveless popped the hatch of the huge transport bubble which had borne them all away from Ghexia. He surveyed the entrance to the underground lair from which West and Gordon had snatched him to deliver him to the Ghex. All was quiet now with nobody in view. Hopping out, he called to his minions, "Voltaire, Antoinette, go and get our essentials packed up into this transport as quickly as possible so that we can abandon this place! I certainly don't want Mr West and Mr Gordon to come back and find us here again."

"Yes, Dr Loveless," the giant rumbled and hurried to the lowest level to raid the storage cabinets.

"Right away, Miguelito," added Antoinette, and she headed to the upper level to pack their clothes from the bedrooms.

The little doctor himself went downstairs and entered the lab. He strode to the far wall and swung open a small cover that concealed a large red button. Grinning to himself, he pushed the button. Instantly a panel of the wall slid aside to reveal that within… ah, within was a large aquarium kitted out as a miniature laboratory. Dr Loveless leaned down, resting his hands on his knees, and called out, _/Betolo!/_

A small Ghex, no bigger than the doctor's hand, swam toward him. _/There you are, my son!/_ it said to him, its epidermis spangling with joy._ /I could not hear you for some time and was beginning to worry. Where have you been?/_

_/Ghexia./_

The tiny Ghex shivered all over and turned blue. _/Ghe… Ghexia! They discovered us? They took you away?/_

Loveless waved all that aside. _/Yes, yes, yes, but that's of no moment now. Ghexia…/_ and he smiled his most gloating smile _/…is no more!/_

_/You… you destroyed it? The whole planet?/_

_/Oh, not the planet itself, no. But the labs are gone, and with them, all the research they stole from you, along with their entire collection of your enhanced replicants. Poof! They won't be able to duplicate your work any longer, those thieves./_

_/Wonderful! Oh, I knew I was right about you, from the moment I first laid tentacles upon your original!/_ said Betolo, shimmering patterns cheerfully racing all over its skin.

Loveless basked in his mentor's praise briefly, then said, _/But we'll have to move now. This location is known and… Great Scott, what's that, some sort of glowworm?/_

For a second small Ghex had swum out and was now bobbing alongside the first, chartreuse whorls glittering all over it.

_/Oh, this? This, my son, is Begolo. I… well, you were gone and I had no one to talk to, so I replicated myself. It's nice to have one of my own kind to talk with, one I can trust not to betray me. Besides, many tentacles make the work lighter, you know./_

Loveless continued to frown, not sure if he liked sharing his mentor with anyone, not even Betolo's own clone. _/Well,/_ he said at last, _/as I said, we need to pack up and move on. Oh, and once we are in our new location, I have something interesting for you to experiment with, my dear friend!/_

_/Oh?/_ The little scientist asked, intrigued.

_/Yes. Get into your transport bubble and I'll take you to see it./_

Shortly, with the little Ghex bobbing along at his side, its epidermis shifting with viridescent curlicues, Dr Loveless led the way to the magnificent transport bubble in which he and his cohorts had made their escape. Voltaire and Antoinette were busily packing equipment into it, but the pair stood back and made way respectfully at the little doctor's approach.

_/Here it is,/_ said Loveless to Betolo. And he pointed at the floor of the great bubble were there lay, curled up and comatose, the body of a lovely brunette woman clad in yellow with a large ugly black burn mark on the bodice of her dress. _/I'm curious to see what sort of improvements you and I can come up with for this one!/_ Loveless added, as he began to giggle with unholy glee.

**~~~ FIN ~~~**


End file.
